


Fight the Good Fight

by Romiress



Series: More to Being a Father than Having a Kid [14]
Category: Batman: Arkham (Video Games), Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Flashpoint (Comics), Impulse (Comics)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Alternate Universe - Batman: Arkham (Video Games) Setting, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Family Bonding, M/M, POV Jason Todd, Polyamory, Returning to Superheroics, Slade Wilson is a Good Parent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:02:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 49,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22570684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Romiress/pseuds/Romiress
Summary: As Jason looks towards returning to being a hero, new and returning arrivals to the family make things far more complicated than he'd like.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Jason Todd/Joseph Wilson, Slade Wilson/Bruce Wayne/Slade Wilson
Series: More to Being a Father than Having a Kid [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1386880
Comments: 196
Kudos: 274





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As always, feel free to join us over on [discord](https://discord.gg/kYvx6cd) for update notifications, chapter discussion, fanart, and fanfic!

Jason's sprawled out on his bed when he gets the call. It's not that unusual (he gets calls all the time), but who the call is _from_ kind of is. Bruce doesn't often call him, mostly because he's the sort of person who prefers to do things face to face. Slade? Slade will call. Bruce, on the other hand, will stew on whatever it is he needs to talk about until he has time to come home and talk about it.

Jason considers, ever so vaguely, that Bruce might just be asking for a favor, and then rules it out: he'd have texted.

"Yello," he says, trying to sound light and sing-song even though he feels a flare of anxiety in his gut. It's been happening a lot lately, and considering Bruce is _supposed_ to be dealing with Luthor...

Well, Jason has reason to be wary.

"Jason. Are you at home still?"

"Everyone's home," he says, sitting upright in bed. "Is everything alright?"

"Everyone's safe," Bruce says, and just for a second, Jason lets himself relax. "But something came up. I need you to do something for me, and then get the whole family together and come down to Gotham General."

"Who's hurt?" Jason blurts, anxiety shooting through the roof.

"No one's hurt. It's just... complicated to explain. I need you to go down to the cave and get box..." There's a pause as if Bruce is checking a reference. "L17."

L is _lab equipment,_ which brings up as many questions as it answers.

"Is it viral? Should we—"

"Don't try and guess," Bruce says, and he sounds exhausted already. "Honestly, you aren't going to get it. Just... grab that, be discrete, and bring everyone down here."

"Everyone?"

"Everyone."

"Alfred?"

"Everyone."

"If you say so," Jason says, sliding off the bed and heading towards Joey's studio as he wraps up the call.

Joey's been spending a lot of time in his studio, working on iteration after iteration of his painting for Will. He can never quite decide who he wants on it, waffling between what Jason thinks of as Will's _classic_ family (Joey, Rose, and Grant, although sometimes Hosun appears in there too), and Will's _expanded_ family (Thad, Bruce and Slade, and so on). There's no clear line of who counts as family, and Jason's well aware of the problem Joey's facing as he paints the same figures again and again, trying to get it just right.

"Joey," he calls, and Joey turns towards him, looking sweaty and exhausted. "You've got five minutes to speed-shower and meet us downstairs. Bruce wants everyone to come along to the hospital, and no, no one's hurt."

Jason has to repeat the same message twice more on the way down to the cave. Alfred gives him a concerned look and promises to go fetch Damian, and Will does much the same with a promise to go wrangle Thad from wherever he happens to be hiding. Era doesn't need to be found, since he's almost definitely with Thad, so Jason heads all the way down to the cave and hauls out L17. They're genetic testing supplies and a remote uplink, which Jason squints at before repacking into a shoulder bag that he can carry with him into the hospital without looking like he's hauling an actual crate around.

Joey's hair is still wet when Jason makes it up to the landing, but only he and Thad are there.

"Will's coming with Era!" He says helpfully, obviously not at all worried about whatever shady errand they're being dragged off to take part in.

Everyone else arrives not long after, and they pile into two cars. Jason lets Joey drive, with Thad and Era in the back seat, and Will grumbles a bit before letting Alfred drive with Damian staring out the back window. None of them seem bothered, a fact that annoys Jason more than it should.

They park and head right in the front door, their presence almost immediately drawing attention. The majority of them are public figures, and between Damian's eyepatch and Era's... _Eraness,_ there's almost no chance of them not drawing attention wherever they go. They're very distinct, to say the least.

"Mr..." A nurse starts to say, eyes sweeping over the group of them. "Mrs? The Waynes, anyway," they say, and then gesture for everyone to follow.

The absolute _last_ place Jason is expecting to end up is the maternity ward, and at last he's not the only one making a weird face as they gawk at everything. Clark's waiting for them outside a room, and Jason shoots him the most _what the fuck is going on_ look he can manage as the nurse simply leaves them be.

"I would love to explain it," Clark says, sounding strained, "but nothing is going to explain this. You're supposed to go inside in groups of no more than three, and please be quiet."

"This is where babies are supposed to be born," Thad says quietly. "Is Lois having a baby?"

More like _did_ Lois have a baby, Jason thinks, only there's not a chance in hell that actually happened.

"Dibs on first," Jason says automatically. "I've got this to deliver."

"Why don't Alfred and Joey go in with you?" Clark suggests. "Everyone else can wait outside." He shoots a pleading look to the others, who eventually sit down on the thin little plastic chairs just outside the door. Jason can't wait any longer, pulling the door open and heading inside with Joey and Alfred in tow.

The first thing he registers is babies.

There's two beds in the room, and Lois is sitting on one with a rather fat looking baby cradled in her arms. Considering there isn't a chance in hell she was pregnant when he saw her not five hours before when she came over to carpool with them, the sight is an absurd one.

The sight of Bruce sitting on the opposite bed, another _smaller_ baby cradled in his arms is even more absurd. Jason attempts to say something and only manages to make a strained wheeze, unable to coherently put any sort of words together.

"Oh my," Alfred says from behind him, really speaking for all of them.

Jason wants to ask a lot of questions, like _what the hell_ and _how can you even explain this?_ But he really doesn't have the brain-cells left, so he simply holds up the bag to show Bruce he brought it.

Joey must have asked something, because Bruce responds as if _someone_ did.

"It's a long story," he says. "To be as short as possible, Luthor decided to... _incentivize_ our assistance. From what we can tell, he spliced Slade and I together to make this one and his brother, and then cloned himself directly to make that one." He nods across the room to Lois, who looks like a seasoned expert at the whole baby thing compared to Bruce.

"Where's Slade?" Jason makes himself ask, because that seems important. "With the... brother?"

Clones? Only they're not clones. The Lex one might be a clone, but the other two are more like _genetically created kids._ His head feels like it's spinning, and he has to fight the urge to just sit down right there on the floor. It doe explain the gear he was asked to get: Bruce wants to confirm what he's dealing with as soon as possible, and a lab test is going to both take longer and be less secure.

"In the NICU," Bruce says. "This one and the one he's with are twins, and the one he was with was... very small. He's doing alright, but they want him in for observation to make sure he's putting on weight."

"How small?" Alfred asks.

"This little guy is ten pounds, three ounces," Lois says, hefting the one in her arms. "Bruce has five pounds nine ounces, and the one with Slade's a little guy. He's only four pounds."

Jason feels like his brain is shorting out. The whole situation is insane. There are just... there are just _babies._

"Oh dear," Alfred says. "That is quite small, but I understand twins are normally smaller?"

"That's what they said," Bruce says. "Did you bring everyone?"

"They're in the hall with Clark," Jason says. "This... Sorry, I just need a second to wrap my head around it."

"It's a weird situation," Lois agrees. "Luthor set things up so they were born in the middle of a law office. I think he gave his attorney a heart attack."

"That sounds like him," Jason mutters, and he can hear Joey snort behind him.

He needs to _do_ something, so that's exactly what he does, setting the bag on the side table and getting to work pulling everything out.

"Do we need to test all three?" He asks as he sets it up, and then glances over his shoulder to see Bruce shake his head.

"The one with Slade is, as far as I can tell, an identical twin with this one. It should be the same, and it isn't a high priority."

Alfred settles in beside Lois, cooing over the larger baby, and Jason produces a needle, staring at the baby Bruce is holding before putting it away.

"No way," he mutters. "I'm not... I don't know how to do this."

Bruce chuckles, and then after a second holds the baby out.

"Do you want to hold him? I could go get a nurse, who'd probably be a lot more qualified than we are."

Jason stares at the baby, absolutely torn, but Joey pats him on the shoulder and that's all the nudging he needs. He reaches out, carefully taking the offered kid, and settles down in the seat as Bruce adjusts his posture.

"I've gotten a lot of lectures about holding babies wrong in the last thirty minutes," He says, sounding resigned. "You might as well do it right the first time so you don't have to suffer. I'm going to check in with everyone and grab a nurse, so if anything goes wrong..." He pauses, and then lets out a laugh. "Ask Lois, because she has some idea of what she's doing."

He excuses himself, and Jason lets himself look down at the tiny bundle in his arms. They're small, which is the most obviously striking of his features, but beneath the little hat the hospitals put on him Jason can see wisps of dark hair poking out. They look like they're asleep, but when Jason rocks them a bit their eyes pop open, staring up at Jason with wide eyes.

The baby with Lois, of course, takes that as his cue to start wailing, and she has to shift positions, shushing him carefully.

"Hungry, probably," she says. "They're always hungry at this age."

"We don't know anything about babies," Jason mumbles, half to himself.

"Most parents don't," Lois says, and Jason is suddenly aware that he said it out loud. "You learn as you go. Thankfully, Bruce and Slade have a _lot_ of support to help them out."

A nurse bustles in shortly after, with warm bottles for Lois and Jason. Jason gets the unfortunate job of feeding the baby to distract them from the prick of the needle as the nurse draws a tiny amount of blood, handing it off to Bruce to run his tests. They do the baby in Lois's arms next, and by that point Jason's all too happy to hand the kid back to Bruce, his arms already starting to get sore from the position.

"The administration is going to come down with birth certificates soon," the nurse tells them. "She just had to make some calls and try and... figure out this situation."

"I can already tell this is going to be a nightmare," Alfred says. "Does the certificate not require a mother's name...?"

"We'll sort that out," the nurse says, obviously desperate to not have to be the one who does that sorting.

Jason and Joey excuse themselves, letting Damian rotate in with Will so that Era and Thad can come in last. Joey stays with Era and Thad, and Jason takes the opportunity to head down the hall, asking for directions to the NICU when things aren't completely obvious.

He doesn't even need to go in. Slade's standing outside, watching through the window as some nurses bustle around one of the little bed.

"Everything alright?"

Slade glances to him and nods. "You already see Bruce?"

"Went and visited, played with a baby, helped take a DNA sample for testing. The whole nine yards. How are you holding up?"

"Better than I thought," Slade says. "This is the second time I've had an unexpected kid popped on me, but so far this one is going a lot better."

It takes Jason a second to realize Slade's talking about Rose, and he swallows down what he was going to say in favor of reaching out, resting a hand on Slade's shoulder.

"You're going to be great," he says, because he knows it's the truth and he wants to make absolutely sure Slade knows it's the truth too. "I know this came out of nowhere for you, but... you're still going to be a great dad, you _and_ Bruce."

Slade makes a small strained noise and is silent for a while. Jason lets him stand there, just turning things over in his head, before Slade finally musters up the nerve to speak.

"Is it wrong if we let Clark and Lois take Luthor? One kid would be hard, two kids is difficult, but three kids... neither of us have dealt with a baby before. Neither of us knows what we're doing. And Luthor..." Slade hesitates, obviously deeply bothered by the whole thing. "Luthor's the half-brother of _five_ of their kids, and yet somehow letting them take him in still feels like a cop out."

Jason doesn't answer right away. He's _well_ outside his area of expertise, and it's not like he knows a damn thing about kids. He's not sure it's ever going to feel genuine, but he tries anyway.

"I don't think it's a cop out. I think this is a weird situation and I think what matters most is doing what's best for the kids. So... is this what's best for the kids?"

"They..." Slade pauses and then grunts, still staring in the window. "Letting Clark and Lois take Luthor would probably be better for everyone. More attention for the twins, and Luthor—"

"Can you call him _anything_ but that?"

 _"Alex_ would probably feel more comfortable with the quints. I feel like Clark would... do a better job with him. But it feels like we're giving him away because he's _not_ related to us."

"Dad," Jason says, reaching up to squeeze Slade's shoulder again. "You're worrying about this too much. Go with your gut."

Slade is silent for a moment, and then hangs his head, letting out a sigh.

"Clark knows what the hell he's doing, and if worst comes to worst we're right across the way. Two is... two is already going to be a lot. Three is... Probably too much."

"They offered?"

Slade nods, and Jason realizes his eyes haven't left the little bed beyond the glass. "First thing. The moment we got somewhere we could take a breath, they _both_ offered. Simultaneously. I think they knew we were going to be in over our heads."

 _In over their heads_ is definitely one way of putting it.


	2. Chapter 2

To Jason's complete and utter lack of surprise, Alfred comes to find them before they've been standing there too long.

"Master Jason," he calls, and then smiles and nods to Slade. "Master Bruce was hoping the two of you would return. He needs to fill out the paperwork, and I believe he had a task for you, Master Jason."

"Someone has to stay with—"

"I will be more than happy to watch over the little one while you handle things," Alfred says. "We're just observing right now, correct?"

"He's the little one over there," Slade says, turning to the window and pointing out the right baby. They're not the smallest in the room—here's a few that are fully intubated—but they're still fairly small, and there's a little WW stuck where their name should go as a temporary placeholder.

"They're both quite precious," Alfred says. "Now off you go."

The hospital administrator is there when they arrive, looking torn between excitement at having to deal with celebrities at work and despair at having to figure out how to write it down.

"Looks like Parent 2 just arrived," Bruce says. Joey's sitting on the bed, baby in his arms as Bruce works on filling out the forms. "They had to dig us one up that didn't require a _mother."_

"I can only imagine what everyone would have thought seeing my name down under _mother's name,"_ Slade snorts. "What are we doing, legally?"

"You have five days to come up with a name, so we can leave first name blank for now. They'll technically be Baby Wilson-Wayne and Baby Wayne-Wilson," the administrator says, and Slade cringes at _another_ thing they need to come up with. "Quite frankly, laws don't really cover this situation at all, but supposedly you're the biological parents and there _isn't_ a birth mother, so... I can't imagine there would be any trouble."

Slade leans right on over, signing the forms like it's the most casual thing in the world.

"What about the other baby?" Damian asks. They're definitely beyond their _three person maximum,_ but everyone's being quiet and respectful and the administrator doesn't really seem to mind.

"There's... again no mother," the administrator says, sounding strained. "They aren't genetically yours?"

"Unrelated sample," Bruce says automatically.

"Honestly I have no idea how I'm supposed to fill it in."

"If I can make a suggestion," Clark says, "I'm not one hundred percent sure how it works in this state, but I was put down as mother and father unknown for all of five minutes before my parents adopted me."

"I can look into it, at least," they say. "I need to check with the hospital's legal team to make sure I'm not breaking any laws doing that, so it'll just be a bit longer."

They excuse themselves, and Bruce turns to Jason, giving him a weak smile. Behind him, Joey finally passes the baby off, this time to Clark.

"I'm going to go see the other one!" Damian announces, and Thad goes after him as the two speed-walk down the halls to avoid getting in trouble for running.

"Jason, I know it's a lot to ask, but could you... ah, call Tim and Dick? I can't imagine our presence didn't get noted, and _someone_ is going to find out and make it public."

"Consider making it very public," Lois points out. "If you do a birth announcement I think it would be less of a big deal."

"It would also..." Slade pauses, torn for just a moment before he continues onward. "It would also help disguise his parentage." He nods towards the baby Lois is still holding, who seems to have finally quieted down. "I need to talk to Bruce about that, if you could excuse us a moment."

"I'll call them," Jason says. "Take all the time you need."

He goes to find a sitting room where he's not going to bother anyone, and then calls Tim first. Thad had only _just_ gotten out of school when they left, so Jason figures Tim's probably still _at_ school, which would be convenient because the hospital isn't far.

"Jay!" Tim answers. "Long time no talk," he says, as if they didn't literally talk the night before.

"You still at the school?"

"Yep. Just doing some marking I need to turn in tonight. If you're asking, Thad's already gone. Zipped right off the moment he could."

"I know, he's here with the rest of us. Listen... a thing came up and it's _really_ weird, but we're over at Gotham General."

"Is everyone—"

"We're in the maternity ward."

The noise Tim makes would probably be hilarious in any other situation.

"I... alright. Who... who knocked someone up?"

Jason doesn't even _know_ how the hell he's supposed to answer that question. Lex Luthor knocked up Slade and Bruce? Bruce and Slade knocked each other up? Lex Luthor knocked _himself_ up?

"Luthor's incentive was apparently clones. So you've got little Slade-Bruce babies here."

Tim wheezes.

_"What?"_

"Yeah, I know. Do you want me to call Barb while you finish that marking? You two are the baby experts of the family, after all."

"Barb's three months pregnant."

All of a sudden it's Jason's turn to have his brain stop working.

"I— what— congratulations?!" He manages to say.

"We were going to announce it later this month. There's just been a lot going on and we didn't want to distract anyone, and— Did you say _babies?"_

"There's two. It's kind of a long story. You want me to call Barb?"

"Please. I need to... I guess dump this work on a coworkers desk and tell them I need to head out. Gotham General, right?"

Jason confirms it's the right hospital and then gets to calling Barb.

"Jason!" She says, sounding delighted. There's someone talking in the background, and considering the tone of the voice Jason's pretty sure it's Jackson. "What's the occasion? You don't normally call this early in the day."

"I do not even know where to start so I'll skip right to the end. Luthor made Slade-Bruce clones so now there's twins."

Something shatters on the opposite end, and Jason cringes as he overhears Barbara shooing Jackson away from the dropped plate.

"He _what?"_

"I know, I got even less warning than you did. I just walked in on Bruce cradling this tiny little baby like it was a totally normal thing. I already called Tim and he's coming over, we're just in Gotham General right now."

"I need to call my dad to watch Jackson then. Is this— can I even tell him?"

"Tell away," Jason says. "I think Bruce is going to just publicly announce it so people don't get all _rumor mongery."_

"They're going to get that way anyway."

"Yeah, but we can hope, right? Either way, tell Jackson I said hi and... I need to go call Dick."

"Tell him to sit down first," she says. "You owe me a new plate."

Jason _does_ make sure Dick is somewhere private—and sitting down—before he tells him, but Dick's reaction is a bit more muted.

"Figures," he says, and Jason's confused noise is apparently enough to draw more of a reaction out of him. "Luthor was always weird like that. Surprised he didn't clone himself."

"He did," Jason says. "He— that baby is staying with Clark and Lois, I think. Bruce and Slade are talking about it now. But we're not going public with that, obviously."

"Obviously. I'm not going to be able to go anywhere for at least another couple hours. I'll call you when I can and see if you're still there, alright?" There's a brief pause, and Jason can tell just by the intake of breath that Dick has something on his mind.

"You think I can bring Dax?"

"He's family," Jason points out. "Bring him along to meet the new additions."

He hasn't dealt with Dax much, but it's clear to Jason that as Bruce was to Dick, Dick is to Dax.

There's a pause so long Jason has to wonder if Dick's dropped the call, but when Dick finally speaks his voice sounds cracked.

"Thanks Jay," he says. "I'll call you when I'm free, alright?"

"Sure Dick, just let me know."

As far as things go, Jason has to say that at least phase one went pretty well.


	3. Chapter 3

Clark's in the hall on the phone as Jason makes his way back to the hospital room, and Jason _really_ wishes he'd ducked into a hallway. It's not like they're in public—the maternity ward is fairly secure to begin with—but people are definitely stopping to stare, doing what they can to be sneaky about it, but still obviously interested.

Jason isn't sure he blames them.

"Yes ma," he says, his Kansas accent coming out thicker than Jason's ever heard it. "I know it's last minute, but—"

Jason brushes past him with a quick nod and heads into the hospital room.

The staff have given up on maintaining the three person limit, because almost everyone is crammed inside. Thad and Era are missing, but everyone else is there. It takes Jason a second to locate the kids, since Alfred has little baby Luthor and Will is currently pacing on the far side of the room with little baby... baby.

"Called everyone, Tim and Barb are going to come over. Dick says he'll call when he's free and then come down with Dax. We have names for them yet?"

"I don't want to rush into it," Bruce says without looking up. He's sitting at the control panel of the computer Jason brought with him, squinting at the results. "Clark and Lois picked one though."

Jason turns to Lois, who looks casual as can be sprawled out on the hospital bed, letting someone else have the baby for once. Clark steps inside just as he does, his phone call apparently finished, and goes to join his wife by her bed.

"Alexander Jor Kent," she says. "Goes by Alex. Jon's my dad's name and Clark's dad's name, so we figured we'd complete the set."

"We thought about giving him a completely unique name, but..." Clark hesitates. "If I'm being honest, I always liked the name Alexander anyway."

"It matches with Jon," Lois confirms. "Jonathan, goes by Jon. Alexander, goes by Alex."

"I tried to convince the quints to have their names match the pattern, but no such luck," Clark says with an all-too-weary-sigh.

Jason sort of regrets the names he gave the quints. They were always supposed to be _temporary,_ only it didn't quite work out like that. Everyone's still stuck with the three-letter color names he gave them way back when, and Jason's regretting not having spent a bit more time thinking them through.

"And the other two?"

"Temporarily, this guy's a baby bat, and the other one's a baby bird," Will says. The baby on his shoulder seems to be drooling, completely conked out as Will walks them around the room.

"A baby bat and a baby bird."

"First things that came to mind," Bruce admits. "We need to... give the names some thought. Normally parents have months to figure this out, and I don't want to pick a name and regret it."

"It's a good point," Will says. "You have to give it some thought."

"We've got plenty else to do in the meanwhile," Bruce says, reaching up to snap the included laptop shut. "That said, I can confirm that baby bird and baby bat are genetically mine and Slades. I've passed the test off for some more comprehensive investigation to make sure everything's healthy, but it _looks_ fine."

"Baby Alex?"

"Genetically identical to the sample I have of Lex Luthor," Bruce confirms. "No extra additions as far as I can tell. I was worried he might have... slipped himself in some advantages, but it seems just fine."

"Probably didn't want to risk it," Will suggests, and Jason has to agree. It's not the sort of thing you want to _risk,_ considering the side effects.

"So how much longer do you have to be here?"

"They want to weigh our little baby bat here and make sure he's putting on weight, and then he's good to go home. I think they're going to want to keep baby bird overnight since he's smaller, but that just gives us time to get everything ready. We need... a lot of stuff."

"A nursery, for one," Alfred says. "I believe your extra room has suddenly found a purpose, Master Bruce."

"How fast do you think they can retro fit it? How—"

"They're babies, Bruce," Lois says. "At this age they stay in a crib and don't go anywhere. You've got time to work out the details."

Jason, truth be told, really just wants to get out of the hospital right then. He's never been a big fan—he doesn't think anyone is—but the fact that he's in the same hospital as the _last_ time he was seriously injured...

"Why don't I take Al and we can go pick stuff up for the house? Even if we don't need to adjust the whole house tonight, we need... I mean, at least the basics."

 _I'll come with,_ Joey signs. _You're going to need extra hands._

They're absolutely going to be in desperate need of more hands, so the three of them head out after saying quick goodbyes. Jason's sad he's going to miss Tim and Barb, but he doesn't doubt for a _second_ that they're going to be over a hell of a lot more now that they're the _seasoned baby experts._

Considering the time crunch they're on, they head straight for the closest specialty store. Alfred and Joey go to start picking things out, while Jason goes to offer a lot of money in exchange for same-day delivery.

"We actually don't offer same-day delivery," the manager says, before pausing and looking Jason over like he only _sort_ of recognizes him. "Earliest delivery is next week."

"Could you call whoever has the next available slot and tell them a customer had an emergency and is willing to pay off their entire purchase if they're willing to give it up?"

The managers eyebrows practically fly off his head, probably because Jason hasn't even asked how _much_ the order was. Jason decides it doesn't matter: unless they're buying the whole damn store, Bruce isn't going to bat an eye.

"I... could do that."

"Great, because I don't want to have to shuttle all this back and forth. I'll be looking at cribs when you hear back."

Everything related to babies seems to be both expensive and complicated. Nothing is _easy._ Everything has fifteen different certifications from companies and organizations Jason's never heard of. Jason ends up googling for help, which only complicates things because it turns out that if you do anything even the teensiest bit wrong, your baby is in danger.

By the end of shopping for cribs (and carseats), Jason's convinced that it's a miracle that humanity hasn't gone extinct.

Alfred, on the other hand, has very different things in mind.

"Do you think we should have a double wide stroller, or an inline one?"

 _It's Bruce,_ Joey signs. _Double-wide._

The salespeople apparently can smell money in the water, because they circle like sharks, approaching carefully. They have all sorts of suggestions (the first stroller Alfred picks isn't compatible with the car seats), and by the time the manager arrives to let them know that the next delivery slot has _happily_ taken their offer they've already got staff helping carry things up to the front of the store.

"Two of everything?" The manager asks.

"Twins," Jason confirms. "So two of everything."

There's rattles and formula and clothes and toys and Jason's overwhelmed before they're even done half the store. Thankfully Alfred's perfectly happy to handle things, taking charge even though he has as much baby experience as the rest of them do.

By the time they're done the bill is downright eye-popping, but Jason knows that if he goes back for cheaper stuff Bruce will just replace it all, so he lets it go.

They pick the most important stuff (the car-seat in particular) to take with them in the car, and then head back to the manor. Someone has to take the car seat back to the hospital, and Alfred's happy to volunteer to make sure the house is ready.

"Go see Master Tim," Alfred says. "I'm sure he'll be excited to see you."

The only question is Joey. Jason looks to him, raising an eyebrow, and Joey shrugs.

 _I'll help Al,_ he signs. _I think it's going to be busy enough without us there, and I don't want them to start cracking down on how many people we can have in the room._

Jason leans over, kissing Joey on the cheek, and then pulls back.

"Don't have too much fun without me, alright?"

Joey winks, then leans in to give him a kiss on the lips. It's just a light peck, but it makes Jason blush anyway, and he excuses himself to the hospital feeling downright giddy.


	4. Chapter 4

Era's waiting outside the hospital room when Jason returns, the carrier part of the car seat in tow. He's only brought one, relatively certain that baby bird isn't going to be coming back with them that night, but if he's honest he feels _weird_ carrying a baby carrier, even if it's empty.

"That is for the baby?" Era asks when Jason reaches the door, looking down at the carrier in Jason's hand.

"To carry him out, and so he can go in the car with us safely."

"Why travel with him in the car?" Era asks. "You could simply ask myself or Clark to fly him home, saving time and trouble."

"I don't think Bruce is going to let the little baby bat out of his sight for a loooooong while," Jason says, reaching up to pat Era on the shoulder. There's an almost static feeling when he touches Era, but he's firm enough, which is a relief. "Doesn't mean anything about you, for what its worth."

"I will keep that in mind."

Jason heads inside to find the Kents already starting to pack up. He shoots them a confused look, and Clark explains immediately.

"Bruce is going to announce that the family's here and why, so we wanted to clear out before that happens and hopefully avoid... too much attention. The hospital cleared us to leave with him early since he's healthy as a horse, and I thought it would be easier to introduce my parents to him at home."

"You got the forms and everything figured out?"

"As figured out as they're going to get," Bruce mutters. "The lawyers are handling it. Adrian dropped the phone when I explained the situation to him."

Jason really can't blame him for that.

They say their goodbyes to the Kents, and Bruce gets to work setting things up. With time and a bit of thought, he's great at PR, and that's what it is: announcing the kids to make sure that the public looks at them in the right light. There's going to be a lot of questions, so Bruce carefully makes sure he promises to answer them later, putting it off for when he's less worried.

The final step is all of them cramming together for a photo with the still-sleeping baby bat, which is a whole procedure in itself. After some debate, Era, Thad, and Will end up sitting out of the picture, in part to avoid drawing attention, and in part because neither Alfred nor Joey is there.

Getting the four of them into a picture with the baby is a great deal easier than getting the whole family in, which works out pretty well right up to the point when Tim bursts into the room.

"Sorry I'm—" He falters, and Will decides to take the picture anyway, catching a whole lot of less-than-PR-friendly expressions of surprise.

"Normal expressions, guys," Slade says. "Take the photo, say hi to Tim after."

Jason's having a hard time figuring out how he managed to go shopping, go to the manor, and come back before Tim got there, but he puts on a smile anyway and lets Will take the picture.

"Did you get _lost?"_ are the first words out of his mouth once the picture's done. "How did you not get here for so long?"

"He's already been here," Damian says. "He came here, visited with the baby, and then left to get Barbara."

"Jim thought we were pranking him, for the record," Tim says. "I had to text him a picture of the baby before he'd believe me."

"Not without good reason," Slade mutters. "This is an unusual situation, even for us."

"It's not _that_ weird," Damian says. "We're always adding new people to the family."

He grins over at Thad, who grins right back.

"Barbara's on her way up, she just had to take a call," Tim says. "She's pretty excited to see the—" He pauses, staring down at the baby. "Is he still sleeping? _Still?_ Jackson was crying from minute one and refused to stop."

"Wilson genes," Will says. "Grant and Joey were _both_ well behaved babies."

Jason thinks it might be the first time he's seen Will mention Grant without getting upset or at least a bit choked up, and he debates texting Joey about it before deciding against it.

"I actually need to talk to Jason and Damian, if we can," Bruce says. "In private...?"

"Why don't we go see our little baby bird, while Bruce handles the bat? We can meet Barb down there, and she can see him first," Slade says.

"Won't take long," Bruce says, trying to be reassuring.

The baby ends up right back in Bruce's arms as everyone else files out, leaving just the three (or four, if Jason counts the still sleeping baby) of them.

Jason's sure he sounds nervous, but he tries not to be. It's not like there's going to be anything _bad_ happening. It's probably just Bruce checking in with them to make sure they're alright with everything happening.

He feels nervous anyway.

"I know this is a lot," Bruce starts, which is not a great start in Jason's mind. "But I wanted you both to know that this isn't going to change anything. You're still my sons. This is an addition to the family, not... not a subtraction."

Not his best attempt at reassuring someone, which tells Jason that Bruce is probably as nervous as he is and just doing a much better job of hiding it.

"We know," Jason says, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "It's weird, but then every addition to the house has been weird. Our cat was almost a _Lantern."_

 _"Will's_ cat was almost a Lantern," Damian corrects. "Portia and Jade are perfectly innocent."

Bruce cracks a smile at that, and Damian ends up sitting down on the opposite side of the bed.

"Either way, the reason I wanted to talk to the both of you in private is that... well, I think we can all agree that neither Slade nor I are any good at naming _anything,_ let alone a person. So I talked with Slade and we thought that the two of you might... do a bit better on that front."

Jason goes perfectly still as he tries to let himself process what he just heard.

"You... you want us to name them?"

"I thought that might be nice. Something... original to this family, rather than naming them after someone else."

"So we each name one?" Damian asks, leaning over the little baby bat. "Can I name him?"

Bruce seems taken aback by the question, and Jason wonders if he'd planned for Jason to name the larger—and in theory older—of the twins.

"Sure," Jason says, smoothing it out before it can even become an issue. "I'll name the little one."

Damian stares so intently at the baby that Jason's half convinced he's about to cough up a name right there.

"It isn't a big rush," Bruce says quickly. "You can take a day or two to think about it."

"I have it narrowed down to three names," Damian says, which is already a lot more than Jason has. "I'll give each thought, do appropriate research, and report my final choice to you tomorrow morning."

"I'll do the same," Jason says, although he doesn't have _any_ ideas. Every name he comes up with is the name of someone in the family, meaning they're firmly off limits. "I'll... look at baby name sites and things like that."

Bruce leans up, winding his arm around Jason and Damian's shoulders, and pulls them each into a one armed hug.

"I'm happy you're both here with me," Bruce says. "Now does someone want to take this kid before my arm falls off? I've got pins and needles..."

Damian's all too happy to take the baby, mumbling names the whole while.

Jason, on the other hand, is wondering how the hell he's going to manage to name a kid in less than twenty-four hours.


	5. Chapter 5

Jason likes spending time with Tim and Barbara, so he's happy to have the chance to do so, even under the circumstances. He stays and chats with them in the hospital room, the space a bit more open now that the Kents have gone, and only get interrupted when Bruce's announcement goes live and his phone starts blowing up.

The group-chat, of course, blows up with questions, and Jason carefully answers Amina and the Rows, sending them an extra picture of the now awake baby bat. He gets a text from Michael, who he plys with photos, and he's just gotten a congratulations from Hudson when a thought occurs to him.

"Bruce!" Jason calls across the room. "You told Thomas, right?"

"Called the Warden to get a call in outside his normal time. Thomas knows, and he's demanding pictures. I promised I'd bring the babies to meet him when I first got the opportunity."

"Assuming he doesn't get out first," Barbara says. "The whole of Gotham knows that the governor is fast tracking getting him out of prison with all the pressure on him. If he doesn't, he's going to lose any political power he has, because... well, people are angry Thomas was allowed to go to prison at all. People think the police should have just declined his confession."

"They might not feel the same way if he tries to go back to being Batman," Bruce says with a sigh, and Tim grins at him.

"Just tell him he's not allowed to hold the babies unless he stays retired. Problem solved."

"I think he's retired anyway," Bruce admits. "Being Batman had a... a very important place in his life and satisfied an unhealthy emotional need. He doesn't need that anymore, and he has a support structure that can help hold him up."

Jason gives Bruce a _very_ pointed look, and he's not the only one. Bruce shifts in his seat, clearing his throat before addressing the looks.

"I'll also be retiring. I already talked to Diana _before_ all this happened. I'll be... well, for emergencies only. I talked to Diana about Jason taking my spot on the League officially, but she refused and said he could just have his own seat."

Considering Diana's been trying to get him on the League since they first met, it isn't a surprise to Jason, but that doesn't stop Tim and Barbara from hooting and hollering like it's _big news,_ only to have the baby bat let out a wail of surprise that makes them quiet down immediately as Bruce tries to shush them.

Eventually, Bruce starts packing up to go, and Jason drifts down towards the NICU, with Damian and Thad (and their constant guardian Era, doing his worst impression of an ordinary human being) trailing behind. Slade and Will are there, standing shoulder to shoulder as they watch through the window.

"How's the little baby bird doing?" Jason asks, sliding right in between them to get the best view. They part without complaint, whatever conversation they were having interrupted.

"Just fine," Slade says. "Nurses checked on him just a little while ago. He cried a bit and now he's back to sleep. Apparently babies sleep a lot the first twenty-four hours, and then they're a bit more awake."

"Any idea when he's coming home?"

"Maybe tomorrow. Maybe the day after. Will and I are going to stay here and rotate out to make sure someone's always got an eye on him. Doesn't make sense for everyone to be here, after all, and you've got stuff to do at home."

"You two just want to dodge having to set up a nursery," Jason says, and Will doesn't even try to hide his smirk.

"Guilty as charged."

Jason is quiet for a moment, staring through the window at the tiny baby on the other side, trying to find the words to speak up. Slade and Bruce talked about it, but did Will get included?

"Apparently I get to name him," Jason says. "Damian's already got good ideas, and I... don't have any, if I'm being honest."

"It'll come to you," Slade says, reaching up to rest a hand on Jason's shoulder. "Just give it time."

"How about—" Will starts, only for Slade's hand to shoot up, pressing tight over his mouth to cut him off.

"If you say Grant, _so help me god, Will..."_

Will sulks when Slade drops his hand away. "Actually," he says pointedly. "I was thinking Hosun. Or maybe Arthur. Or Billy."

"No."

"I want something that no one we know uses," Jason says. "Something that will help them... establish their own identity. That's my goal, anyway."

"I'm sure you'll do just fine," Slade says. "Is everyone else getting ready to go?"

"I'll get Era to bring you both some supplies. A change of clothes. Maybe a book or two," Jason says. "Even if you're staring here, it'd be better if you were comfortable while you were doing so."

"Thanks Jay," Slade says. "I've got a book on the nightstand, if you can grab that for me."

Jason takes instructions from the pair of them, pulling out his phone to note them down. Getting Era to deliver them is easy, and with the two of them taking responsibility for the smallest baby, there's no reason in Jason's mind _not_ to do it.

Bruce comes to pick him up with almost everyone else in tow. Era's promising to carry Damian back, and Thad's running back, so the car is a great deal emptier on the way back. A nurse comes down to help double check the car seat gets installed properly, and only once it is does the baby bat (already bundled up) get tucked into the seat safely.

Jason doesn't think he's ever seen Bruce drive so slowly, and Jason beats him home by a mile. Unloading the baby is a whole procedure, but by the time Bruce makes it into the house Jason's already got Slade and Will's bags packed, and sends Era off to deliver them, no doubt scaring the crap out of some poor nurse when he arrives.

Damian vanishes into the library to come up with names, and Jason feels almost compelled to do the same. He doesn't though: he opts to stay around Tim and Barbara, who finally gets to use the discrete elevator that Bruce had installed. Once everyone's upstairs, Bruce takes the baby to inspect the nursery, and Jason goes to grab drinks for everyone only to be beaten to the punch by Alfred, who knows everyone's tastes.

For the most part, the rest of the evening feels delightfully low key. The baby needs to be fed almost constantly, but with so many people around there's _always_ someone willing to help. Everyone spends some amount of time sharing the load, even when Bruce gets a phone call and has to excuse himself to the office.

"Have to say," Jason says to Tim, "I'm surprised Bruce is willing to take his eyes off the kid. I expected him to hover more."

"Oh sure, he's willing to leave them alone as long as there's at least five people supervising," Tim jokes, but it's not far from the truth. 

When Bruce returns, he goes right ahead and scoops the baby out of Barbara's arms, cradling them in his own.

"That was Kate," he says. "She gave me hell about not sending baby photos to my only cousin, and said she's going to be here next Thursday. She's also bringing her partner along with her." Bruce makes a bit of a face like that, obviously disliking the idea of having a strange man show up at the house. "I told her we could still host, but we'll need to have the crews finish off the actual guest rooms now."

"They have quite a bit of work that needs to be done," Alfred says with a sigh. "It would have been much more efficient if they hadn't had to stop work, so I'm afraid we're going to be in quite a hurry."

"I'm sure they can manage," Jason says. "We've got enough crews working on the house, and Era can help transport things again." He pauses, then glances over to Era to confirm. "Right?"

"I would have no issue with that," Era confirms.

Damian emerges from his library looking smug, which tells Jason that he needs to get a move on. Dick calls to promise to come out the following morning, having just finished helping his team stop a robbery, so Jason says goodnight to Tim and Barbara and goes to retire into the library, seeking some kind of stroke of inspiration. He could name them after a character from one of his favorite books, but his books tend to be _old timey,_ and he feels like _Fitzwilliam_ isn't going to sound quite right.

He goes through authors and characters and finds himself nodding off at baby name lists, and nothing _fits._ Nothing feels right. Not for such a tiny baby. A part of him wants to be impulsive and just pick a name that sounds right, but a much larger part of him wants it to be _important._ There should be significance to the name, but every time he tries to come up with something significant he ends up winding back to familiar names he's not supposed to use.

Eventually, the weariness is too much, and he packs the books away and heads up to his room. Joey's there, sitting up in bed working away at a tablet, but clearly ready for bed. He glances up when Jason enters the room, grinning at him and sitting up a bit straighter.

 _Find a name?_ He signs as Jason heads for the bathroom.

"Not yet," Jason says. "I'll be out in a minute and I'll complain to you about it _vigorously."_

"Or I could just put the choker on," Joey's voice calls from the other room as Jason gets to work brushing his teeth. Despite Joey bridging the gap, there's not much conversation as Jason pulls on his pajamas, and it only really resumes when he emerges from the bathroom, letting himself fall into bed.

Joey reaches down, running his fingers through Jason's hair, and Jason lets his eyes drift closed for once.

"I'm sure you'll find the perfect name for him," Joey says. "You've got a good head for those sorts of things."

Jason crawls his way into bed, and Joey sets aside the tablet as he does.

"I didn't interrupt?"

 _Of course not,_ Joey signs, swapping between the two forms of communication depending on where Jason's looking. _I was just looking at some paperwork for Lucius. Your dad's been underselling how badly he wants a Wayne with the company, you know._

Jason doesn't correct that Joey isn't technically a Wayne. Sometimes it feels like he already is: Like the two of them are already spending the rest of their lives together, even if—

Jason jerks upright in bed.

"Joey!" He cries, panic flaring up. "What— oh my god, what _day_ is it?"

Joey's all-too-knowing smirk is _killing_ Jason.

_The fifteenth._

"Our anniversary was the eighth! How could I forget it? It's—"

Joey leans up, kissing Jason, which is probably the fastest way possible to make him stop panicking.

Realistically speaking, he has a _very_ hard time panicking while Joey's lips are on his. Eventually, Joey pulls back, reaching up to take Jason's hands in his own.

"You were busy," Joey points out. "There's also been a lot of things happening lately, and it didn't seem like the right time to really be celebrating. So why don't we schedule it for later, and do a make up anniversary?"

He winks just to make absolutely sure Jason knows what he's talking about, and Jason's _sure_ he's gone red.

The fact that Joey sleeps only in a _very_ tight pair of briefs isn't helping things either.

"...Alright," Jason says. "But don't let me forget again, alright? I'm just... not good at keeping track of those kinds of things. I lost the ability to track days of the week the moment I got out of school."

"I won't let you forget next time," Joey says, switching to signs even as he does, letting go of Jason's hands. _Assuming we're not in a crisis next year too._

"You've jinxed us."

 _Maybe,_ Joey signs, and then leans in to kiss Jason ever so softly on the lips. _But I'm sure we'll manage. I love you._

"I love you too."

Jason lets himself sink down into the bed, curling against Joey's side and letting himself fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Speaking of anniversaries, if you're looking for something more explicit, consider checking out this [lovely fanfic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22620991) featuring Joey and Jason.


	6. Chapter 6

Jason wakes the following morning with the realization that no matter what anyone says, he's going to need to come up with a name in the next half an hour. Alfred will already be making breakfast, and Damian's sure to announce his pick while they eat. Even if Jason _could_ ask them to put it off, he doesn't want to. He wants the babies to have _names._

He sits upright, steepling his fingers as he tries to come up with _something,_ and then, like a bolt from the blue, it hits him.

Directly in front of him, tucked in the corner of his room, is his bookshelf. Most of the books he reads are kept in the library, but his favorites stay nearby, just in case he wants to grab one on the go. Right near the top is a well-worn paperback, read so many times the bindings cracked and had to be redone by an old fashioned bookbinder. It's the same book Slade bought him eight years ago, and one of the oldest books in his personal collection. It is, in its own way, one of the books that helped bring them together as a family—not just him and Slade, but him and Bruce, too.

It feels perfect to him. It has the right meaning to him, but it's a common enough name that no one else would recognize the importance. It's just a normal name, which is exactly what he wanted.

But that doesn't stop him from grabbing his phone and making absolutely sure that the name, when combined with _Wilson_ or _Wayne_ doesn't pull up a serial killer or something crazy like that. He double checks the _actual_ meaning of the name (which doesn't have a lot of importance of him, but he thinks 'gift' makes sense for the baby), but by then he's already sold.

Joey taps on the nightstand with his finger, drawing Jason's attention, and he turns, grinning at him.

"I figured out a name, Joey!" He says excitedly, and Joey grins at him before yawning, his signs sleepy and unfocused.

_That's nice. Want to grab me some coffee?_

Jason's more than happy to go pick up some coffee for Joey, and once he has he hops in the shower. Joey joins him, a relatively new step for them, but the shower itself is relatively hands off, save when Joey reaches up and shampoos his hair for him. The feeling of Joey's fingers on his scalp is _heaven,_ and Jason makes several undignified noises as Joey massages across his head and down the back of his neck.

Alfred has indeed made breakfast by the time they make it down to the kitchen, and everyone else starts piling in. Bruce looks half dead, and hands the baby off to the first open pair of arms (which turns out to be Thad), sinking down into his seat.

"He stared crying," Bruce mumbles. "I couldn't figure it out."

Despite Bruce's misery, the baby's quiet right then, wide eyes staring around the room over Thad's shoulder.

"Well, I'll prepare some formula for him and maybe that will keep him happy," Alfred says, already getting ready to do just that.

Damian's clearly been waiting for just such an opportunity, his chest puffing up as he prepares to speak. Jason half expects Damian to pull out and unfurl a _scroll_ to make his proclamation.

"I've come to a decision about his name," he says firmly. "I have given plenty of thought to the matter, and desired a name that was distinct, but had appropriate meaning for the baby. I wanted a name with historical and cultural significance, and one that was important to both me and this family."

Jason resists the urge to roll his eyes. He's sure everything about it is true, but... well, he's half expecting Damian to produce another _Shakespearean_ name.

"Considering we have already used the names of literary characters for pets, it felt inappropriate to use one here. As such I have leaned towards names of a more historical nature."

Visions of _Romulus and Remus_ dance through Jason's head, along with half a dozen other historical or legendary twins.

"Damian," Bruce interrupts, clearing his throat. "I was hoping to get down to the hospital and check in with Will and Slade sometime soon...?"

"Oh right," Damian says, as if suddenly realizing that he can't spend thirty minutes leading up to the name. "Well then, my chosen name is Terence, after the Roman playwright. I was taught Latin using his plays, which have major historical significance. He's also the original source or believed to be the original source of many significant quotes, such as _time heals all wounds,_ _extreme law is often extreme injustice,_ _while there's life, there's hope,_ and perhaps most significantly for us, _fortune favors the brave,_ a motto many of us have lived by."

He pauses, surveying the room, and then finishes things off.

"I was thinking we could call him Terry."

The serious mood cracks, and Bruce smiles at him, reaching down to rest a hand on Damian's shoulder.

"It's a good name. I'm sure Terry likes it a lot."

Thad's still holding the newly dubbed Terry, who babbles a bit in apparently agreement.

"Jason...?" Bruce prompts, glancing over to him, and all of a sudden Jason's _own_ explanation of the significance feels... less impressive.

"I... was thinking about Matt," he says. "Short for Matthew. Part of the names meaning is _gift,_ but mostly I thought it was a nice name, and one of my favorite authors has it. They're... they actually wrote the book Slade got me back when I was first meeting everyone again and really coming back to myself, so the name feels a bit like... well, like it means _becoming a family_ again."

Bruce's smile feels so _warm_ as he looks at him, reaching out with his other hand to rest it on Jason's shoulder.

"It's a good name. They're a perfect little pair, and I'll make sure the paperwork gets all filled out. Hopefully little Matt can come home sometime today, and you can give him his name properly."

Damian scoots right on over to steal Terry away from Thad, happily telling him his new name as Bruce turns his attention to Alfred and Era.

"I need to stop by the hospital and check in with Will and Slade," Bruce says. "Could you fly me, Era...?"

"Of course."

"And could you keep an eye on Terry...?" He asks Alfred, who nods his confirmation.

"Of course," he says. "I'm sure Jason and Joey will be happy to help, and from what I've heard Dick isn't too far away anyway."

Jason's excited to see Dick, but not _nearly_ as excited as Damian is to show Terry off to him.


	7. Chapter 7

Dick does not come alone. He doesn't even come just with Dax, either. Somehow, through an arcane feat Jason can only begin to imagine, Dick has managed to cram not one, not two, but _seven_ people into a minivan. Duke's in the passenger seat, and the entire rest of Dick's team is crammed into the back, and they all spill out like the world's most absurd clown car once he's finally parked.

Bruce is still at the hospital, so Jason takes the lead, ushering them into the house and giving them the tour of the whole place, carefully avoiding active construction zones. Then he leads them upstairs, where everyone else in the family is occupied by feeding Terry, and that's when things get _really_ crazy. Absolutely every single person wants to hold the baby, and while Dick gets first go, everyone else engages in a furious series of rock-paper-scissors matches to determine order.

And then, just like that, it's over. Apparently the power of rock-paper-scissors is not to be doubted, because no one argues the results or anything like that.

Once he's done playing with the baby and Riko is making eyes at him, Dick finally hands the baby over under Alfred's supervision. Then he drifts over to Jason, looking amused by the whole thing.

"So," he says, "Bruce and Slade just popped out a baby? Not something I expected to happen."

"They didn't _pop them out,_ they—"

"I know, Jay," Dick says with a laugh. "I got the whole story already from Al, who filled me in when we talked this morning."

Jason grumbles at him, but it's not like there's any actual _harm_ to it, so he lets the teasing go.

Era goes to pick up Slade to take a shower and pick some stuff up, with Will and Bruce keeping watch at the hospital. He checks in with Dick and his gang, saying his hellos before excusing himself to clean himself up. He's still in the shower when the security system lets them know someone else has arrived it's flagged as a _friendly,_ letting them in automatically, and when Jason checks the cameras he sees Diana on her way in, driving her personal vehicle.

"Diana's here!" He calls towards Bruce's room on the off chance Slade's on his way out, but he isn't, so Jason heads downstairs on his own, leaving Alfred and everyone else up on the third floor.

He makes it to the door right as she knocks, pulling the door open and apparently surprising her in doing so. He grins, and she grins right back, stepping inside when he gestures for her to do so.

"Wasn't expecting you," he admits.

"Everyone else is doing the smart things and staying away a few days to give you all time to adjust before they swarm you to see the babies, but I'm afraid I don't have that option."

"Baby," Jason corrects. "One's still at the hospital with Will and Bruce. Are you going somewhere...?"

"On the encouragement of the UN I'm being dispatched to Santa Prisca in an attempt to end the fighting between the two factions. The government has expressed willingness to compromise, and while Bane and his side aren't going to take that at face value, the hope is that having a neutral mediator will help. That means Steve's going to be in charge for the amnesty and all that."

"You don't need to be here for that...?" Jason asks as they start up the stairs.

"Officially I was never in any trouble at all. I'm an ambassador from Themyscira, so I have the privileges that implies. I also started a bit later then all of you, so when I acted it was with their blessing anyway."

It makes sense to Jason, and he's genuinely happy to hear that things are improving in Santa Prisca. He knew they abolished the worst of their laws, but that didn't exactly mean things were _good._

"If Bane gives you lip just tell him you're a friend of mine and he'll simmer down," Jason says, and Diana's knowing smile tells him that Bruce probably told her something similar already.

"You know, I still haven't gotten a codename from you. We need something to put down on the paperwork so that you can formally be a member of the Justice League when everything goes through."

"Tern," he says automatically, and then goes pink, rushing to explain his situation. "White bird with a black head, just like me in the suit. Long lived, minimal predators, generally monogamous and devoted to their partners, and... most importantly, not a bird of prey. I know we used a lot of the more violent words before, but I want something more... peaceful."

"Not Dove?"

"Too on the nose," Jason says. "Tern sounds like a code name anyway. Is it... is it not good?"

"I think it's just fine," Diana says. "Have you told everyone else...?"

"Not yet," he says. "I wanted to work on my suit a bit more and have it ready to go, but it's not like there's much that needs to be changed."

The conversation derails due to the addition of a baby, and Diana babbles excitedly at Terry when the baby is handed for her. She seems _very_ happy to see them, and eventually explains that babies don't really _exist_ on Themyscira.

"I was the first one born in hundreds of years," she admits. "You can imagine how many doting aunts I had."

She isn't going to be able to stay long, but that doesn't stop her from maximizing the baby time she has. Terry seems excited when she spins him around, although Alfred looks a moment away from snatching the baby up despite the fact that Diana is more than qualified. Jason ends up sitting back with Dick, chatting with him until it's time for him for Dick and his team to go. Diana stays a bit longer, just in time for Will to arrive (Jason didn't even register Era leaving to pick him up), and for Slade to trade off, heading back to the hospital.

"We're rotating," Will says. "Afternoon, Diana."

"I'm afraid I'll be gone by the time you're done changing," she says. "I need to catch a flight to Santa Prisca, but it was good to see you all."

Jason sees her off to the door, just like he saw Dick and his team off, and then the house suddenly feels a great deal emptier as they finally go.

They get the call later that night, when Bruce lets them know that they're on their way home, baby in tow.

"He's small, and normally they'd keep him longer, but I assured him we'll be watching him very closely as needed, and we'll come in if anything happens. He's putting on plenty of weight and he's doing alright, so they think he'd be better at home."

They don't come empty handed. They've got a medical-grade baby scale for Bruce to keep track of their weight, but Jason only has eyes for the baby in Slade's arms when they finally get in the door. Slade doesn't even hesitate to reach out, handing the baby to Jason, and once the tiny bundle is resting in his arms Jason feels like his heart is cracked in half.

They're so _small._ He just wants to keep them safe right then.

"Hey little guy," Jason says quietly. "Your dads said I could name you, so... I guess that means you're Matt now. Your brother's Terry, and I'm Jason."

Everyone else wants to see the baby too, but Jason takes the longest with them, cradling them in his arms before finally handing them off to Alfred to take his turn.

Joey slides up beside him, leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek, and then grins.

 _You two are cute together. Seems more like he should be a nephew than a brother, right?_ Joey signs to him.

"Probably," Jason agrees, "but our family's never exactly been traditional. Dick's only three years older than me, but I'm thirteen years older than Damian, so Damian being fifteen years older than the twins seems about right."

_And I used to think Grant and Rose had an age gap..._

"The families all over the place," Jason says. "Just means the kids have plenty of family to look out for them."

Joey leans over, kissing him softly, and winds an arm around Jason's back, pulling him closer.

Jason doesn't need to see Joey's hands to know that he's signing _I love you_ before he kisses him again.


	8. Chapter 8

Sunday is, to Jason's immense relief, mostly free of anything they have to do. Gordon stops by to check in and say hello. They visit with the Kents midday, learning that baby Alex is doing just fine. Michael shows up, and to Jason's surprise Will brings a friend over, introducing Eiko to everyone before showing off the babies himself.

"I'm their godfather," he says, sounding all too proud of that fact.

"Good," Bruce says. "You can change the diaper next, then."

Considering how many people seem to be taking an opportunity to drop by, Jason suspects there'd be actual competition just to change the diaper.

Not to be left out, Jason has the Rows over since Amina's busy. Harper coos over the babies, while Cullen declines the option to hold them.

"I don't want to— I mean, babies are small and wiggly and I really, _really_ don't want to be the guy who dropped the baby."

"We've got like four people with superspeed," Jason points out. "Someone would catch them."

Which isn't the right answer, because Cullen goes white as a sheet and _refuses_ to do anything more than pat Terry on the head.

Will makes dinner while Bruce and Slade take care of the babies, and both of them are down and out before the family even eats. Bruce spends the entire meal with his eyes glued to the baby monitor, which has of course been _upgraded_ to his specifications.

Jason spends a good portion of the afternoon touching up his suit. While his original plan was to recolor it, in the end he decides the white and black of the original ikon suit design works just fine, and he leaves it as is. The technology is beyond his level, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to figure out how exactly it's supposed to work.

When he goes to bed that night, he's tired from being so social, and he crawls right into bed, curling up beside Joey as he starts to nod off.

"No doing anything tomorrow," he mumbles. "Going to spend the whole day down in the cave hiding."

Joey taps him to draw his attention, and then signs when Jason opens his eyes.

 _Can you hide up here?_ He signs. _I want to work on something that isn't the painting for pop. Maybe you in your suit? I could get a preview._

For some reason the thought of Joey seeing him in Joey's old suit makes him go a bit red, and he mumbles a _maybe_ that he knows really means _absolutely_ because he doesn't think he could ever really deny Joey anything.

He loves him too much for that.

Jason ends up in charge of Terry the following morning while Joey handles Matt. They get to feed them over breakfast while Bruce handles some phone calls and Will and Alfred handle the meal. By the time Bruce gets back, he looks exhausted even though the day's only just started, scooping up Terry before getting Joey to put Matt in the crook of his other arm.

"Technically speaking, while the _point_ was to give us Terry, Matt, and Alex, what Luthor _did_ was gave us a great big crate. Luthor wouldn't bother mass producing something if there wasn't a profit, so I had the law office make sure the crate got shipped to Wayne Enterprise's R&D department. The crate itself was specialized, but some of the equipment inside could easily be re-purposed to help with other newborns. I'm also talked with Director Bones to get him to make a deal with WE about the stuff in Luthor's warehouse now that we know the importance."

"We know the importance?" Jason asks, raising an eyebrow as Will drops a plate of eggs and sausage in front of him.

"With Clark's boys, he took Clark's DNA and cloned him, splicing in his own DNA as needed. With Terry and Matt... well, not to be crude, but Luthor _absolutely_ didn't have a sperm sample from me or Slade. Which means he somehow took two DNA samples and produced a child that seems indistinct from a naturally produced child... and that's technology that could be very helpful. Not just for gay and lesbian couples, but any couple struggling with fertility would love to have something that actually _works,_ rather than something that's just a chance."

"Plus, we've got proof of concepts right here," Will says, reaching out to pat Terry's head. Terry makes a face, and Jason hops up to intervene, passing over a warmed bottle as he takes Matt to leave Bruce an arm free.

Once they're done eating, Jason and Joey excuse themselves up to their rooms, but not before Jason ducks down to the cave to retrieve his suit and his gear. It's too early to talk to Tanya, so he mostly tries it on and models for Joey, but around lunch he ends up calling Tanya and chatting about his ideas.

Somewhere along the way, Jason loses track of time, and he only is reminded of it when Alfred stops by with food for them. He thanks Tanya and lets her get back to her own work, and then takes everything he's gone over in mind and makes an inventory list.

"Going to need to go to a hardware store," Jason admits. "Bruce has all the specialty stuff, but he's missing some of the basics..."

 _Not surprised,_ Joey signs. _You going to fly there?_

"I think I'm just going to drive," Jason says. "I want to finish the upgrades before I teach myself to fly effectively."

_Not that hard. I learned pretty much within an hour. You'll pick it up even faster._

Jason kisses Joey on the cheek and leaves him to his painting. He checks in with Slade, who has the twins, and then hops on his motorcycle to head into Gotham.

The first part of the trip goes just fine. There's not much traffic on a casual Monday afternoon, and the store itself isn't far. He parks in one of the spots and carries the helmet in with him, heading straight for the proper section of the store.

He's just got the part in hand when things start to go wrong.

"Holy crap," someone says, and Jason's head swings around on pure instinct. It's an employee of the store speaking, gawking at him blatantly from a few feet away. "You're Jason Wayne."

"Yep," Jason says. "That's me." He doesn't bother to correct that it's _Wilson-Wayne,_ and while he finds it irritating, he supposes that it's probably confusing as hell to the average person that half of them are Wilson-Wayne and half of them are Wayne-Wilson, with a sprinkling of _just Wayne_ or _just Wilson_ added to make things extra confusing.

"I signed the petition to get your grandpa out," the guy says excitedly, and Jason feels a flutter of anxiety. Right. Thomas. There's a petition and protests and a million things he hasn't been paying attention to. He's been avoiding social media and the news, letting Bruce filter what's happening and pass it on to him. He doesn't feel the need to go trawling through the comment sections or reading about what people are saying about his family.

"You all done? I can check you out," he says, and Jason's so, _so ready_ for things to be over, so he nods and lets the man head up to the front of the store.

People are looking.

People are recognizing him.

Jason suddenly regrets taking off his helmet. No, more importantly: he regrets taking off his gloves. Once upon a time he left his hands uncovered without concerns, the scarring on them minimal. Now that everyone knows the truth, it feels far more obvious to him. There's a large scar on the back of his hand that's faded with age, but that doesn't stop people from _looking,_ and Jason feels bile rising in his throat.

They know.

They all know who he is and what he's done, but far more importantly: what was done to him.

Jason's hands feel like lead as he drops some cash beside the register. He has a hard time looking directly at the cashier, who's excitedly chatting away about meeting a celebrity. Jason knows things are going to get worse before they get better, which is why he isn't surprised when the cashier all but announces his support.

"You know, I always said that you guys were the good guys," he says at a volume that would be too loud for Jason even if it was a whisper. "Everyone who was saying you guys should go to jail should shove it. Gotham would be a hole if it wasn't for your dad and you. You guys made a difference."

It's meant to be a good thing. It's meant to be a positive affirmation of the difference they've made in people's lives.

But all it is to Jason is a harsh slap of reality. They all know. Everyone in the city knows, and he can't put that secret back in the bottle. There's no going back to the world where he was just _Jason Wilson-Wayne, formerly Robin, Batman, and Raptor._

"Thanks," Jason mumbles, grabbing the part and taking off. He doesn't want to freak out in front of people. He doesn't want anyone to see.

He makes it to the bike. He makes it out of the parking lot. And as he rides out he knows he's not going to make it home as he is.

He calls Joey, because it's the only thing he can think to do as he makes his way home.

"Jason?"

"Can you just— I just need you to talk me through this. I just need you to talk to me until I get home."

It isn't the first time he's had a breakdown with Joey not around, but it's the first time he's had the option to just call Joey and get talked through it. Joey's voice—really, any voice—helps to ground him, and Joey knows enough about how to handle things that he doesn't ask _what's wrong_ or _what happened._ Instead, he talks about other things specifically to draw Jason's attention away. To interrupt the toxic swirl of his own thoughts.

Joey talks about the twins, and about his painting. He talks about his mix of excitement and worry at the idea of Jason going out and being a hero. He talks purely _to_ talk, which is a concept that he's only recently come back to.

The talking doesn't _stop_ the panic attack, but it at least puts it on hold long enough for Jason to coast safely into his parking spot in the manor's garage where he finally allows himself to break down.

Joey finds him there, crouched on the ground beside his motorcycle. He doesn't hesitate to lean down, wrapping his arms around Jason and pulling him closer, rubbing circles in his back and just giving Jason time to process what just happened.

In the end, Jason knows the truth: there's no going back. All he needs is time to adjust to his new reality.


	9. Chapter 9

Jason does very little for the rest of the day. The family knows enough to know how to handle things, and they mostly let Joey keep an eye on him. The suit doesn't get finished, so Joey tucks it away in the closet and lets Jason spend most of the afternoon in bed. He works out when he has the energy, happy for a distraction, and while he doesn't join them for dinner, he does spend a little while with the twins while Alfred makes him his favorites afterwards.

He sleeps better than he expects that night, and by the time he wakes the following morning the worst of it has passed. He still feels awful, but he feels at least _functionally_ awful. He has breakfast with Thad before he zips off to school, and then spends the rest of the morning letting Joey paint him some more.

Life, however, has no intention of letting Jason take a day off.

There's a press conference just before lunch where the president announces that the government is moving forward with new legislation that will, in his words, _significantly change the way the legal system handles vigilantes, the Justice League, and heroes._ The first and most important step, of course, is ensuring a fresh start to the system.

And so, just like that, he announces amnesty for vigilantes who have gone outside the law to protect innocents and those around them.

There's more to it, and Steve calls to let them know he'll be handling things, but the core idea is clear enough. It's a good, solid step forward, and Bruce and Slade both seem happy with it.

It's not the most important thing that happens that day. Not long before dinner they have an unexpected arrival: Andrew Wilson, the mayor of Gotham. He looks harried as if he's been running around all day, and considering what the amnesty means for Gotham, that's probably right on the money.

Alfred lets him in and gets him some coffee, and then Andrew vanishes into Bruce's office to talk while everyone else mills about, openly wondering what's going on.

"He should have just said it in front of us," Damian says. "We're going to find out anyway."

"Formality," Slade says. He's got Terry while Will has Matt, and Jason's happy the twins are different sizes, because otherwise he'd get them mixed up. The difference is a whole lot less noticable than it was the first day, but Terry's still the larger of the two. Jason wonders as they wait if that'll stay: is Terry always going to be the bigger of the two?

The mayor isn't long, and when he leaves he says polite goodbyes to the family before heading out. Only then does Bruce fill them in, but the look on his face makes it easy to guess.

"Thomas is coming home?" Jason asks, and Bruce's smile turns to a scowl.

"How—"

"Obvious," Jason says. "What else would it be?"

Bruce huffs and finally gets around to explaining.

"His sentence was commuted. Legally, that means he's still guilty, but in this case it also means he's coming home."

"When?" Damian asks, leaning forward in his seat.

"Tomorrow morning. It would have been tonight, but the governor only found out about the amnesty when the public did. There's some amount of paperwork that needs to be done, but it's on his desk and getting his signature in the morning, and then it's just how fast Blackgate can process his release."

Tomorrow _morning._

"Is his room even ready?" Thad blurts out. He doesn't really know Thomas, having only met him once in the prison. The change is absolutely going to be most jarring for him and Will, neither of which has had all that much exposure to Thomas before. Jason's just hoping that Thomas will _stay_ as chilled out as he was when they met him.

"It's prepared," Alfred say simply. "It has been for several days, as I felt it likely that this sort of thing would happen before too long."

"Do we need to do anything else?" Jason asks, glancing around the room, and Bruce shakes his head.

Slade, however, dissents. 

"Clean underwear. Clean socks. The ability to pick and choose his own schedule. Proper toiletries. A nice bath to soak in. Quality food."

"Things you missed while you were in prison...?" Jason asks, raising an eyebrow.

"More or less. He'll probably be here for brunch, if we want to do that."

"I'll make something nice," Will says. "Start off with a good second impression before he finds out I'm banging his son."

Bruce splutters and goes red, giving Will an absolutely scandalized look. "Will!"

"It's the truth," Will says. "Not sure how well he's going to take it, you know."

"He'll be fine with it," Bruce says, but he sounds far from certain. "We just have to introduce the idea to him... tactfully."

 _Ideally while he's distracted by cute babies,_ Joey signs, and Bruce scowls in his direction as Joey simply shrugs. _It's the truth._

"Let's just all try and be welcoming. It's going to be a big adjustment for him, and I think he's going to need a lot of help getting... well, used to things. Maybe someone could take him to pick out some new clothes...?"

"Didn't he already have some when he arrived?" Damian asks. "I mean, when he first arrived, didn't we already take him shopping?"

"He only bought a few things," Alfred says. "He said he didn't want too much."

"Maybe it'd be better not to," Bruce says, even though he suggested it in the first place. "Maybe something for his room?"

"Why don't we see what he wants to do when he gets here," Slade says, resting his free hand on Bruce's shoulder as his other arm cradles Terry. "He might want to just spend some time at home. Rest. Get used to things before he starts running around making purchases. The mall might be overwhelming for him on his first day out."

Jason has to agree, and thankfully Bruce doesn't try and argue.

That night, Joey shows him the painting he's done: Jason standing on the edge of a building's roof, dressed in his Tern suit, ready to leap into action. It's a good portrait, even if it hasn't finished drying, and Jason leans over, kissing Joey's cheek.

"What are you going to do with it?"

_Stick it on a wall somewhere, reminding us that you're watching over Gotham while we sleep._

Jason's sure he's as red as a tomato, but that doesn't stop him from kissing Joey again.

"I love you."

_I love you._

Jason spends that night curled up in Joey's arms feeling like the luckiest guy in the world.


	10. Chapter 10

It's clear to Jason (and probably everyone else) that Bruce is _extremely_ self conscious about Thomas coming home. Jason doubts anyone would blame him, considering Thomas is in fact kind-of-sort-of his father, but it's still a surreal experience watching Bruce scurry around the house the following morning, double checking everything like the king of a foreign nation is about to show up for brunch.

Will, meanwhile, has decided that the quickest way to a man's heart is obviously through his stomach, and has made some of the most delicious and indulgent food Jason's ever seen. He keeps swatting Damian away as he tries to steal food, but even Will isn't fast enough to stop Thad, just fast enough to spot him and glare at him for sneaking treats.

Bruce gets the call from the prison at 9:30, and Jason doesn't think he's ever seen Bruce get into a car so fast. He's approaching _Batman getting in the batmobile_ speeds, which feels like perhaps the most obvious sign yet of his nerves.

The rest of the family mills about, waiting for Thomas to arrive. Alfred double checks his bedroom, Will makes sure the food is going to be ready in time, and Jason... well, Jason opts to be productive, finishing up his modifications to the Tern suit so that it's finalized.

Joey whistles down the cave's entrance to give him some warning right on time, and Jason puts the suit away and heads upstairs to meet his kind-of-sort-of grandfather.

Again.

Thomas isn't quite how Jason remembers him. The Thomas he briefly lived with was brash and argumentative to the point of annoyance. He very obviously believed he was in charge and that everyone else just needed to fall in line, and the man Jason visited in prison felt... temporary.

It was hard to really judge him during the short supervised visits because everything he did was being scrutinized. Even hugs had to be kept to a minimum, start and end of the visit only, so it was hard to judge how he _really_ was.

The man coming up the driveway towards them feels like almost a different person. Jason feels like it's probably more the posture than anything else. Thomas no longer walks like a man looking for a fight. He looks more _relaxed,_ the hard edge filed down by having time to process everything that happened.

"I hear I've got even more grand-kids now," are Thomas's first words to them as he comes up the steps. He's got new clothes on, probably having changed at the prison, and they fit a lot better as he heads up the stairs.

"Just inside," Jason says. Slade's stayed in with the kids set up in a pair of bassinets set up in the dining room. "I know you probably want to talk and everything, but Will made food."

"Prison wasn't as bad as they say, but the food's twice as bad, so that's certainly welcome," Thomas says as everyone heads inside. "That said, babies first. Not going to make any secret about my priorities here."

Thomas is technically a man with somewhere between six and eight grandchildren, but he hasn't been in the lives of any of them. If Bruce regrets not having been around for his children's childhoods, Jason imagines Thomas's regrets must be even more extreme. He barely knows his own family.

So it feels like there's a palpable sense of relief when Thomas sees the twins for the first time. His eyes water, and he hovers over the bassinets, obviously wanting to reach out and hold them and... not, for some reason.

Fear?

"Like this," Bruce says, reaching down to carefully pick up Terry. Terry's the larger and less fussy of the two, and he carefully places Terry into Thomas's arms, correcting his hold to make sure Terry's head is supported. "This is Terry. He's the larger of the two and he's a bit more relaxed. His brother Matt is... a bit more fussy, to say the least."

"Kept me up half the night," Slade grumbles. "He likes to be held, and he'll simmer down if he's in someone's arms, though."

"And they're..." Thomas pauses, squinting between Slade and Bruce as everyone else crowds around. "...Genetically yours? Both of yours?"

"It's a long story," Bruce says, looking amused. "Luthor made them. So they're a surprise... but a pleasant one."

Bruce could be announcing his intention to murder every person on Earth and Jason doesn't think for even a moment that Thomas would be paying him any attention. He has eyes only for his newest grandchildren to the point where Will simply gives up, ushering everyone else towards the table so he can feed them.

Thomas eventually does join them, but only when Bruce effectively prys Terry away and tells him to go eat.

"Will spend a lot of time and effort making sure you'd have a good first meal," Bruce says. "You should enjoy it."

Thomas _humphs_ and takes a seat, digging in without any sort of pretense. He's in the middle of shoving a piece of stickybread into his mouth when he looks up to find Thad gawking at him.

"Thad, right?" He asks between bites, and Alfred gives him a dirty look for eating with his mouth open.

He's met Thad before—technically he's met everyone but the twins and maybe Era—but meeting him once at a prison meet and greet is _not_ the same thing as suddenly living in the same house as him.

Thad nods his head, looking a shade intimidated by Thomas's presence, so Jason opts to hop in.

"Thad's Joey's little brother," he clarifies in case Thomas forgot. "Second and third floor are all bedrooms. Joey and I are on one side of the top, and Bruce and Slade are on the other side. Then we've split everyone else into two wings. Thad, Damian, and the twins are on one side, and you'll be on the same side as Alfred, Will, and Era."

"Era? Wait, that's the... the robot?" Thomas asks, wrinkling his nose.

All of a sudden everyone—and it really is everyone—is talking at once.

"He's not a robot—"

"—really nice, actually—"

"—actually sort of a Kryptonian—"

Matt ends the lecture by starting to cry, and everyone goes very quiet as Bruce scoops Matt up, trying to get him to calm down as Slade moves to intercept Terry before _he_ can potentially get riled up.

 _Era's a part of the family,_ Joey signs as the only person who can speak without upsetting Matt more. _He's_ — _I forgot he doesn't know ASL. Jason, can you interpret?_

"I know it," Thomas says. "I'm not good at it, but I had a couple months to practice. Especially when you started making out with my grandson."

Jason chokes on his bacon. He's been doing a _lot_ more than making out with Joey, and the idea of Thomas knowing that... well, it's uncomfortable to say the least.

"The point is, Era's family," Will says simply. "He's protective of Thad, but he doesn't cause any trouble or anything like that."

"Just getting the lay of the land," Thomas says. "Seems like it's basically split down the middle. Wouldn't it have made more sense to have your half the family on one side of the house?"

Oh dear. It's Alfred who heads that one off at the pass.

"The upstairs rooms are intended to be homes within homes. Joey needs a significant amount of space for his art, and he and Jason are sharing a room. Having mixed accommodations was more appropriate."

"Hmmmm," Thomas says, squinting between Jason and Joey as if he's trying to decide how he feels about that.

"We should just tell him, you know," Will says. "Dragging it out isn't going to do anyone any good."

"He's already got a lot to process," Bruce points out. "He needs time to adjust before we fill him in on everything he's missed."

"You might as well front-load it," Thomas says. "Doubt it'll make much of a difference for how long I'm going to need to adjust."

"Speaking of which," Bruce says quickly. "I found a nice therapist on short notice who'd take you. It's right in the same plaza Joey goes to, and I think it would be good for you to... help adjust."

It's probably a good idea. Considering how much it's done for _him,_ Jason's never going to do anything but extol the virtues of therapy, and if anyone in the house needs it... well, it's Thomas.

Thomas grumbles a little bit, his eyes drifting over to the twins, and then finally nods.

"Fine," he says. "I'll go to this therapist you've got picked out for me. But I'm only promising that I'll try."

"That's all we're asking," Bruce says. "Just that you try."

Thomas's eyes drop down to the food, and he spears a bit of sausage, popping it into his mouth before turning to Will.

"You made all this? Not Alfred?"

"I've retired from cooking," Alfred explains. "I manage the household, but the kitchen is now Will's sole domain."

"It's pretty good," Thomas says. "Pretty sure I killed my own taste buds cooking back in my home dimension, but this is good stuff. Can't say I'm going to miss having to feed myself."

It's a compliment. Or almost a complement, because it's not particularly generous considering just how good Will's cooking is, but then Thomas barely seems like the kind of guy who knows what a compliment _is._

"Now, if you'll excuse me," Thomas says, setting his fork down on the empty plate and rising to his feet. "I've got something I need to do."

And then, as if he _wasn't_ effectively in the middle of a meet and greet with the family, Thomas simply leaves. He heads out towards the back porch, and by then Jason already knows where he's going, but not everyone does, and there's a bit of a scramble as everyone goes after him. Everyone stays by the door, staring out as Thomas walks across the lawn back towards the cemetery.

"...Where's he going?" Thad asks, looking more confused by the second. "He's not just walking into the woods, right?"

Bruce's hand drops down, resting on Thad's shoulder and giving him a reassuring squeeze. "Thomas is going to visit his... his wife. Or the closest thing he has."

"Oh," Thad says, very, very quietly. "Should we leave him be...?"

"Why don't we get back to eating," Will says. "We're going to be living with the guy, so it's not as if we aren't going to see plenty of Thomas soon enough. Give the guy some privacy."

Everyone else goes to eat, but Jason contents himself to watch. The graves aren't really visible due to the slope of the land, but he can just see the top of Thomas from where he stands by the window.

He can only imagine what he must be feeling. He can only imagine how much seeing Martha's grave must mean to him after months away.

No, not even months. Thomas ended up in jail less than two weeks after he arrived, which means he was in jail for a year. To Jason, it doesn't feel like it's been that long, but he suspects that for Thomas, it feels like much longer.

So Jason simply stands by and watches, hoping Thomas can find peace out by the graves.


	11. Chapter 11

There's no question in Jason's mind that Will is right: Thomas needs to be told about the trio.

Thankfully, Bruce seems to have the same realization, because almost an hour later when Thomas returns to the house, Bruce pulls him aside to talk to him in private and excuses the two of them. Joey sits down with Jason as they watch Matt and Terry, and Damian and Thad seem intent on figuring out how to properly introduce Thomas to the myriad of pets. Alfred's vanished to help supervise construction on the lower level with Era, and Jason has absolutely no idea where Slade and Will have gone.

Probably dodging the fallout, if he had to guess.

The talk doesn't take all that long, lasting no more than ten minutes, and when Bruce and Thomas emerge from Bruce's office, Jason finds himself squinting at the pair of them, trying to assess how things went. No one's screaming or lashing out, which means it's not _that_ bad, but that doesn't mean it's good either.

"So?"

"He knows," Bruce says. "At this point I think he's been filled in on every major thing we couldn't tell him while he was under someone else's supervision. He understands the need for discretion on the matter, so you don't have to worry about what you can or can't say around him."

Which is a relief, because Jason's having a hard enough time keeping track of who knows what when people are visiting. Having to watch what he's saying around Thomas would have been a nightmare.

Bruce collects up the twins and goes to tell his wayward lovers the news, and Thomas lingers, his eyes dancing between Joey and Jason. His arms are folded, which means he's not particularly happy, but Jason's doing what he can not to feel _too_ critical of that little detail.

For Thomas, everything he just learned must feel like a big change.

"You guys aren't bothered by this?" Thomas asks, looking them over. "Aren't you two supposed to be like brothers?"

"Damian considers Thad and Dick his brothers, and Thad considers Bart his brother, but Dick doesn't consider Thad or Bart his own. It's more complicated than just saying 'we're related' at this point," Jason points out. "Family's complicated."

 _Jason and I aren't brothers,_ Joey signs. _Our families have just started joining a bit earlier than we planned._

"Kind of surprised you're alright with it, honestly," Jason admits. "It's a weird situation at the best of times, and we basically had to drop it on you out of nowhere."

"I'm not," Thomas says flatly. "But I recognize that it isn't my relationship, and if Bruce wants to..." Thomas crinkles his nose a bit. "...be involved with multiple men, then that's his prerogative. He's an adult."

 _Plus, the twins have three dads,_ Joey signs. _I think Bruce and Slade would be stretched thin with them, even with everyone else's help. Everyone else has things they're going back to, but Will has experience with babies_ and _he doesn't have anything else he needs to do._

"You've got something you're going to be doing?" Thomas asks after a little while. Jason suspects he's not quite keeping up with Joey's signs, and obviously Joey has the same thought, because his response is slower.

_I'm starting work at Wayne Enterprise. I've already done some early preparation with Lucius, but it hasn't been a regular job before now._

"And I'm starting up with the Justice League," Jason says. He hasn't had a chance to tell Thomas about it, the last few weeks having been exhaustively busy with everything that's happened. "I'm going to be going out as Tern. I know Thad's talked about going back into heroics when the Teen Titans starts up again, but I think Damian's retiring."

"The kid lost his eye, he's going to need to recover," Thomas points out, scowling at the whole thing. "I should have gotten myself out and come to help when all that was happening—"

"It wouldn't have helped," Jason points out. "Almost everyone without powers was benched. The risk was just too high. Damian was only there because he was _supposed_ to be helping last minute evacuees, standing by in case someone else needed extra help."

Thomas huffs, and Jason can't really blame him. A big part of Jason regrets letting Damian get so close to danger. Regrets letting him get hurt in a way none of them can take back.

 _Have you thought about what you want to do now that you can do whatever you want?_ Joey asks. _You've got a blank slate, effectively._

"Gave it a lot of thought. Lots of _when I get out, I'm going to do this thing_ in mind, but that doesn't—"

"Thomas!" Bruce yells up the stairs, and Jason scoots to the side, leaning over the railing to look down.

"He's up here!"

"The Kents are here to do introductions, can you send Thomas down?"

Thomas is already on his way down, and Jason and Joey both trail after him.

Clark's brought his whole family, which is probably a good idea. Thomas has already met Clark, Lois, and Jon, but he hasn't met Martha, Jonathan, or the six boys that have been added to Clark's family in the past year. It's comical watching his eyebrows go higher and higher as he takes in the five (nearly) identical kids, the baby in Lois's arms, Clark's doting (and equally amused) parents...

"Wait," Thomas grumbles, eyes dancing over the group. "I read about this. These are the clones?"

"Born the same day you went away, I'm afraid," Clark says. "We celebrated their birthday a little while ago. This is Ren, Ore, Yen, Gar, and Blue, and the newborn is Alex."

"I'm Jonathan," Clark's father says, offering his hand to Thomas for a shake. "And my wife Martha. We moved in with Clark to help him with the boys, since it seemed like it might be a bit much for just him and Lois to handle."

"We handle ourselves pretty well," Ore says, seeming very pleased with himself.

"That's nice of you," Thomas says. "Thomas Wayne. You used to live down in Kansas, right?"

"Smallville," Martha says with an approving nod. "Sold the farm to some family friends. It was probably for the best anyway, if we're being honest with ourselves. Couldn't really keep up with the day to day work, so better the land get worked by someone who has real energy."

"Plus, being out here has some real perks," Jonathan says. "More grandkids then you could shake a stick at, for one..."

It's obvious that the over-60s are having the time of their life, and Jason quietly excuses himself with Joey rather than standing around listening to the three of them talk.


	12. Chapter 12

Thomas seems to be adjusting as well as anyone could expect to his new circumstances. Thad and Damian end up dragging him around the house to give him the whole tour, and of course introducing him to the various pets. Thomas likes Titus but isn't much of a fan of any of the cats, but ends up retiring a bit early to his new room to rest.

"It's a lot of change," he admits.

The fact that he's secluding himself in a private room to process isn't lost on Jason, but considering he's only been out for one day, Jason isn't going to hold it against him. After spending so long in an enclosed space, going back to one must feel almost comforting.

Thomas emerges for dinner, which is good, because that means he's around when Bruce makes his extremely ill-timed announcement.

"Kate called me from the airport, and they're leaving tonight."

Kate.

Crap. Jason had completely forgotten, and it's obvious he isn't the only one.

"They're still coming?" Damian asks. "But..."

"Wait, your cousin Kate?" Thomas asks. "I didn't realize you two talked."

"We only do a bit," Bruce admits. "We've been estranged for years, ever since... since my parents died." It's strange for Jason to hear him say it, but it's the truth: His parents are dead. The Thomas in front of them _isn't_ his father, even if Jason suspects Bruce wishes he was. "She's been in Europe for years. From what I understand, this is her first visit back in quite some time."

"She's bringing a boyfriend," Slade adds. "We've got guest rooms for both of them, but we don't know much about him."

"They're serious, according to her," Bruce says. "They are in a committed relationship, anyway. She was vague, but I assume they're near engagement or approaching it."

"And you don't even know this guy's name?" Thomas asks. "But you're letting him near your kids?"

"My kids have the best babysitters known to mankind," Bruce counters. "Everyone who isn't a literal baby can handle themselves in a fight in anything but the most serious of scenarios, and the babies are being watched twenty-four seven."

Jason has to agree. Unless Kate shows up with a literal super-villain on her arm, they'll be just fine.

That night, Thomas doesn't go to bed right away, and Jason catches him standing out on the third floor balcony, looking out over the grounds. He's out of place, technically, but Jason's not going to lecture him on it, opting instead to drift out to the door, peeking out to make sure he's alright.

"Nice view, right?"

Thomas nods his head without looking. He's leaning on the railing, hunched over slightly, and Jason steps up, joining him there.

"...You doing alright?"

"Just wondering if I made the right choice taking the pardon. Could have turned it down, stayed where I was... I probably sound crazy just saying that, like who _wouldn't_ want to get out of prison, but... it made sense. That's been my life for the last year and it felt like the first time in decades that I really _understood."_

Jason's not sure he _really_ understands what Thomas is talking about, but he understands, at the very least, that Thomas is talking from the heart.

"You don't really talk about the world you came from," Jason points out. It's not meant as a judgement, just a statement of fact.

"And I won't. There's things that happened over there that you'd be better off not knowing about. If I was smart, I wouldn't have told you anything about it. I'd have taken it all with me so that no one would even remember such an awful piece of shit of a world."

"There had to be some good things about it, didn't there?"

"Sure, the same way you can find a kernel of corn in a pile of cow shit," Thomas says. When Jason glances, the corner of his mouth is turned up, apparently amused by the whole thing. "The world was rotten to the core. Everyone was a worse version of themselves, almost without question. Every good thing over there ended up ruined. Things... things are better here."

The smile fades, and it's obvious to Jason that Thomas is thinking of his old home.

So he takes a guess.

"You're wondering if you should have gone with it."

"I'm the last thing left behind."

"How—" Jason pauses, hesitating for a moment, debating if it's alright to ask, and then gives in to his curiosity. "How did you get away?"

"A man I killed. A... a speedster, not unlike Thad. He helped create my world, and after I killed him he took his revenge by stranding me in the repaired timeline."

Jason almost asks how he managed that _after_ he was killed, and then realized that it probably doesn't matter. Everything about the fact that Thomas isn't from another _world_ but another timeline of the world Slade and Bruce went too just gives him a headache.

"You should talk to your therapist about this," Jason says. "I know you're doing that whole _I'm taking it with me to my grave_ thing, but... I mean, you're what, not even seventy? You've got a long time before that happens. Seems like it would be a shame if you spent the next thirty years being miserable because you don't want to talk about it."

Thomas is silent, and Jason almost asks. He almost asks the unspoken question that he knows he _should_ ask.

But he doesn't. He can't take that burden. Instead, he tells Thomas what he needs to hear more than anything else.

"We're happy you're here, you know? I know you're not this world's Thomas, and we're not... we're not the family from your world. But I know Bruce is happy to have you here, and I am, and I'm pretty sure the whole family is excited to have you here."

He's not going to say he _knows,_ because he doesn't. People like Thad and Will barely know Thomas, but he's sure Thad's excited for a potential new grandparent anyway.

Out of the corner of Jason's eye, he sees the corner of Thomas's mouth quirk up, and then after a moment he pulls back from the railing, turning back towards the house.

"Should probably get to sleep," Thomas says as Jason joins him. "Going to be hard sleeping on a bed that isn't hard as a rock."

Jason says his goodnights and heads into his room, but he's having a hard time not dwelling on the conversation. On the way Thomas said he was the _last thing left behind._

It's still on his mind when Joey joins him in bed, curling up against him.

 _What's on your mind?_ Joey signs, his hands held up so Jason can see.

"I just... feel bad for Thomas, I guess. He really wants to be my grandfather and he wants Bruce to be his son and everything, but..."

_He's not._

Jason nods. "I kind of wish he was. It would be... it would be nice, I think. He's got so much on his shoulders and just..."

Joey reaches out, rubbing at Jason's shoulders until at least some of the tension eases away, and Jason sags even farther into the bed, letting Joey work his magic.

"Just need to... to make sure he fits in. That everything's alright."

Joey kisses his cheek and curls against him, and Jason lets himself drift off with that thought in mind.


	13. Chapter 13

Thomas seems a bit more relaxed at breakfast the following morning, but the looming arrival of Kate is an obvious issue. Realistically speaking, it's too early. Thomas should have at least a few days to adjust before they really introduce anyone else, but the fact is that Kate was scheduled to arrive before they knew Thomas was getting out, and it's far, far too late to cancel.

"If you need to, you can always go elsewhere," Bruce says. "You don't need to stay and socialize or anything like that."

"I'll be fine," Thomas says. "Kate's family too. It'll be good to see her again."

"Did you see her in your old world?" Damian asks, obviously trying to be helpful and offer a point of conversation. It backfires almost immediately, Thomas's expression going grim.

"She died before things even got really bad. Was working with the military out east when she got killed. It broke her father, and after that I stopped talking to that side of the family."

Which was basically his _entire_ family from what Jason understands. Thomas was an only child.

"Well," Bruce says, obviously trying to lighten the mood, "Kate should be here soon, so you can talk to her then. I... don't actually know if she even knows you're here, but I imagine she'll see the news before she arrives."

Everyone ends up doing something important while they wait, and there's a _lot_ of things to do around the house. There's babies to take care of and building to do, and since construction on the east side of the house is finished, Jason helps Will and Era move the workout equipment out of storage down in the cave, up the stairs, and into the new gym. He doesn't do much heavy lifting himself (there's not much point when Era could bench press a tractor trailer with no effort), but _someone_ has to be in charge of making sure everything gets brought up, and that falls to him.

He's in the middle of double checking all the weights have been brought up when Thad zips down to the cave.

"A car just pulled up to the gate!" He says excitedly, running circles around Jason. "You should probably come up!"

Jason does, letting Thad zip off ahead of him, and he makes it all the way to the top of the stairs before he hears raised voices.

Slade and Bruce are huddled not far from the door in the middle of something that looks an awful lot like an argument. Jason can't even remember the last time he saw them argue, which makes the entire thing almost _surreal_ as he takes it all in.

"I'm not mistaken, Bruce," Slade snaps. "I have eyes. There's no way—"

"It's been years," Bruce counters. "Can we at least wait for them to get out of the car—"

"What's going on?" Jason says, loud enough to interrupt. The babies aren't there, probably with Alfred or Will, but Thad is, and Jason hates the idea of Thad seeing them argue. Slade and Bruce might not be Thad's parents, but they might as _well_ be, and Jason knows just how awful it is to see your parents fighting.

Slade jabs his finger towards the security screen, and Jason steps up to look. A nice looking rental car has just parked in front of the house, and the fact that they're not already outside to say hi and grab their bags is telling.

Jason takes maybe half a second to recognize the figure on the screen that isn't Kate.

"Is that _Selina?"_ Jason asks, gawking at the screen. The woman in question certainly looks like Catwoman's civilian identity, but it's been years since Jason saw her, and there's no telling how she might have changed. The confusion doesn't last long though, and then Jason finally clues in. "When Kate said she was bringing her partner, she didn't specify her _romantic_ partner, did she?" Jason asks. "She meant _partner in crime."_

"Selina's a criminal," Slade points out. "Kate's supposed to be a vigilante. They wouldn't be working together."

"You're Deathstroke, he's Batman," Jason says. "Stop acting like idiots and go greet our guests."

Opting to lead by example, he storms out of the house with Thad on his heels. Kate's already parked just in front of the house, and is currently in the process of removing their bags from the trunk.

They seem to have a _suspiciously_ large number of bags for just two of them, but it's not as if he knows what a normal amount would be. Up close, there's no question that it's Selina, even if she is wearing a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, looking a whole lot like a celebrity trying to look classy without being recognized.

"If it isn't a little bat," Selina says all-too-slyly. "It's been a while."

"Bruce and Slade weren't exactly happy to see you," he says. Even if he was never on particularly good terms with Selina, the fact is that he _does_ know her better than Kate. Bruce is the one who knows Kate, but Jason? He's never even met her. He literally knows more about the Kate in the other universe than this one. "I think you could have warned them, you know."

"Where's the fun in that?" Her eyes flick over Jason's shoulder, fixing on Thad just behind him, and her face lights up. "And who is this? Another little bird?"

Jason glances over his shoulder, noting that Thad seems wary. He takes that into account in his introduction, doing what he can to make sure Thad knows the score. "Thad, this is Selina Kyle. She used to be Catwoman."

"Is that why they're fighting?" Thad asks, and Jason doesn't get a chance to answer before Kate joins them.

"I'm guessing my choice of travelling companion caused some trouble?" Kate asks, raising an eyebrow.

Jason isn't going to spare Bruce's feelings on this one. Not when he was, quite frankly, a bit of an idiot about it.

"You said you were bringing your partner, and rather than thinking about the fact that we already _know_ you're a vigilante, he just assumed you were bringing a _romantic_ partner."

Jason knows just from the way Kate's mouth twitches—and, if he's being honest, from the way Selina's started smiling—that he's wrong. It takes him a second to process the options, and then he lets out a groan, burying his face in his hands to hide his blush.

"You're _both."_

"Considering half your house is gay, I'm a bit surprised we had to spell it out," Kate says, grinning a moment before offering her hand. "Kate Kane. I don't think we've ever formally met. I met one of you, but...?"

"That would probably be Dick," Jason says. "I was the second one he adopted."

"Well, plenty of new faces then," she says, her eyes flicking over to Thad. Thad's still half standing behind Jason, but emerges a little bit when Kate looks at him.

"I'm Thad," he says. "I'm—" There's a moment of hesitation, and Jason has absolutely no idea what he's hesitating on until he says it. "I'm Will's son."

"Will is the... the other Slade?" Kate asks. Behind them, Jason can hear the rest of the family (or at least a chunk of it) finally leaving the house and heading towards the car.

Jason opts to give them some much needed direction.

"Era, could you grab the bags from Kate?" He asks, and Era's quick to oblige, wordlessly taking the bags as more and more people arrive behind them.

Selina will _not_ stop smirking, and while Bruce is taking it in stride, Slade's practically sulking. Bruce handles the introductions, gesturing to people as he goes.

"I assume you already met Jason and Thad," he starts. "This is Slade, my husband, and Damian, my son. The man who just left—" Jason isn't actually sure if Era would identify himself as _a man,_ but up until that point he's never thought to ask. "—is Era, Thad's guardian."

"I think I'm going to need a map," Selina says with a smile.

"You'll figure it out," Jason says.

"Alfred and Thomas are both inside. They're my..." Bruce hesitates, clearly trying to figure out how to describe them, before finally settling on something that's close enough to the truth. "Fathers."

"And the babies," Damian says helpfully. "Matt and Terry. And Joey and Will."

Mercifully, Damian does not attempt to explain Will's relation to the family, because there isn't a chance in hell that Bruce is going to let Selina Kyle find out.

"If I'd known you were going to have children, I'd have rescheduled," Kate says. "I've been meaning to come out and visit, but... well, things have been busy. You know how it is."

Selina offers a wink, leaning heavily on Kate's shoulder to make it _painfully_ obvious that they're involved in case any of the new arrivals have missed that fact.

"We've got a lot to talk about," Bruce says. "I didn't realize the two of you were..." His eyes flick between the two. "Involved."

"And I didn't quite realize how many people you have over," Kate says. "We could go to a hotel, if that would be easier—"

"Please, I'm not putting you into a hotel," Bruce says, sounding offended at the very idea. "Alfred would die of shame at the very suggestion. We have guest rooms." There's a brief pause. "Or a guest room, if you'd prefer."

Selina laughs at that, and Bruce looks genuinely embarrassed. Selina's not an ex—her and Bruce never dated officially—but there was certainly a _lot_ going on between them, and it's obvious Bruce has no idea how to handle it.

"We should go inside," Slade says. "Get you settled in. You can meet the kids. When I talked to him, Alfred seemed to remember you better than Bruce did, and he seemed pretty excited to see you."

Jason's just happy to get inside in general, really. There's going to be a _lot_ of catching up to do, and he'd rather do it with everyone around.


	14. Chapter 14

Somehow—Jason isn't even entirely sure how—they actually do manage to fit everyone in one room. There's a lot of introductions and chatting and of course Alfred insists on getting everyone something to drink, and when it comes out that Selina and Kate haven't eaten, Will goes to make them something. By the time everyone's fed and watered, Bruce is sprawled on the armchair with Matt in his lap, and Slade's opposite with Terry in his. Selina and Kate have taken up a couch, and Portia's made absolutely sure no one forgets who Selina is by curling right up against her.

Jason takes the loveseat near the center of the room so that Joey can sign, but instead Joey asks Thad to go grab the choker from his room, slipping it on a few seconds later when Thad returns. Neither Selina nor Kate seems particularly bothered by Thad's tendency to zip around, although Kate keeps sneaking peeks at Era, who has dispensed with the pretense and started hovering slightly.

"Alright," Jason says because apparently no one else is going to, "I'll bite. How did you two end up together?"

"Oh, I'm sure you can imagine," Selina says, scratching between Portia's ears. "Kate here was always fun to play with while we were in costume, and I started flirting, she flirted back, one thing lead to another..."

Jason feels like his head is spinning at that, and the realization that Bruce is blushing—probably thinking of how closely he followed that exact plan—is throwing him even more for a loop.

"I had no idea you were together," Bruce admits. "I haven't kept up with how things are in Europe as much as I should. This area is really my... well, area of expertise."

"Obviously I don't advertise our relationship," Kate says. "Selina and I have a..." She eyes Selina warily. "Long and storied history together. One of my terms was that she stop being a catburgler if we were going to date seriously, and she's followed that. She makes an excellent partner, really, but there are things she can do as Catwoman she could never do as an official member of my team."

"Who knew that vigilantes and criminals had such similar skill-sets?" Selina says with a pointed look towards Slade, who grunts in annoyance.

"It does make sense," Joey points out. "Are you visiting for work, then?"

"We're following a lead," Kate confirms. "It's not particularly time sensitive or anything, so I thought we could stop by and visit for at least a few days before moving on."

"Who are you after?" Bruce asks, leaning forward slightly in his seat, adjusting Matt as he does.

"There's a man doing some very alarming experiments on animals. We think one of his associates is here in America, even if he mostly operates out of Europe himself. He's one of our major opponents right now."

"Brain," Selina confirms. "He's almost as much trouble as Lady Shiva."

Bruce chokes on his drink. Jason doesn't only because he doesn't have a drink, and it seems very likely to him that half the room just had the exact same thought. Bruce is simply the fastest on the draw.

"Are you in contact with Lady Shiva?"

"Are you in contact with _your_ villains?" Kate asks, obviously expecting a no.

"Yes," Bruce says. "At this point I can contact every major opponent I've ever had." Or at least the ones that aren't dead.

"Riddler?"

"He works on the far side of Gotham running and escape room."

"Black Mask?"

"In prison."

"Hush?"

"New Arkham, getting mental health treatment. From what I was told he seems to be doing better lately."

Kate _hmmms_ for a moment and then shrugs.

"I wouldn't say we're _in contact_ with her, but I could certainly pass a message. What is it exactly?"

"We should talk to Denali first," Slade points out. "We can't just pass a message without talking to him."

"How did this not even occur to me?" Bruce says, sounding anguished. "We should have tried to find her months ago. We never even thought—"

"Bruce," Will interjects. "Deep breath. Shiva had the option in my world and didn't, so you can stop trying to convince yourself she'd have been amazing if only you'd told her."

"What are you even talking about?" Kate says, looking more annoyed by the second. "Stop talking around us."

"Sorry," Jason says. "How are we...?" Despite his plan to explain, he ends up looking to Bruce, who hands Matt off to the nearest pair of hands—Joey—before going to excuse himself.

"I'm going to call and see what they say. But someone fill them in, please."

Kate looks expectantly around the room, and Will takes up the task.

"Lady Shiva, assuming our information was correct, had a daughter with David Cain. She's living happily with her adoptive father now, but it's possible that her mother would like to know her daughter is safe. It might even help her get onto the straight and narrow."

Will sounds skeptical, and even though that's more or less exactly what happened to both him _and_ Slade, Jason can't exactly blame him for it.

"That was the... the ninja girl from the asylum?" Thomas asks, looking almost as confused as Kate was.

"She stayed with us for a while," Slade explains. "She's happy where she is now, but it's at least worth looking into if we have the option."

"I didn't realize she had a daughter at all," Selina says, her usual smirk completely gone for once. "I suppose there's a great deal about her we don't know."

"She might not want anything to do with her daughter," Joey says. "Considering what we know... she might be better to stay where she is without contact."

"Should still get the chance to find out," Thomas says. "No reason to deny it until you know what they want to do."

It ends up taking a little bit before Bruce returns with news: Wintergreen is willing to have a message passed. Kate ends up ducking into Bruce's office with him and Slade to discuss it, leaving Selina at the mercy of the rest of the family.

Alfred is the perfect host, even if Jason gets the impression that he isn't actually that keen on her. Thomas, on the other hand, has something distinctly _off_ about him. Even if he hasn't vocalized it, he's obviously bothered about something in the situation, and once Jason notices that he can't stop himself from paying attention to the details. _Something_ about it is wrong. _Something_ about it is bothering him.

Jason just isn't sure if he should actually be asking, so he bites his tongue.

Will makes dinner and they all eat together in the up-to-that-point unused dining room, and Kate is almost beside herself with how good Will's cooking is. Selina is less vocal about her enjoyment, but Jason suspects that's just because she's trying to figure out how to steal Will away at the first opportunity. After dinner, Will makes an attempt to get Selina to tame Dexter, but judging by the yowling it doesn't go very well.

Thomas seems more calm when he gets a chance to talk to Kate about her family, catching up on all the things he never got a chance to.

Jason's all but nodding off on Joey's shoulder by the time Alfred announces he's going to bed, an action which causes an immediate chain reaction of everyone _else_ announcing they're doing the same thing. Jason means to ask Thomas if he's alright, but doesn't get a chance. Rather than lingering up on the balcony, he splits off almost immediately, heading for his room. Jason reasons he's probably burnt out after such a high amount of social activity, and tries not to focus on it too much.

The last thing Jason overhears as he heads up to his own room is the sound of Damian apologizing to Selina down on the ground floor, and Jason leans over the railing, trying to listen in and catching just a tiny bit of the conversation.

"—shouldn't have called you a harlot—"

It takes all of his willpower not to laugh and give himself away, but he's smiling as he heads up to his room anyway.


	15. Chapter 15

It's the middle of the night and Jason's phone is ringing. It's not an alarm—if it was the alarm then years of experience would have kicked in and he'd already be out of bed—but it's definitely his phone, and he blindly gropes across the nightstand trying to find his phone dock.

Joey groans beside him, rolling over to bury his face in the pillow, and Jason mumbles an apology as he grabs his phone, pulling it over to his ear without even reading it.

"Hnnng?" He answers the phone because it has to be sometime after two in the morning and he can't process things right then.

"Jason?"

It takes him a second to recognize the voice—Iris West—and when he does he sits up a little bit in bed, rubbing at his eyes and checking the time on his phone. Three-thirty AM. It's not that late over there, but it's still _late._

"What's up?" Something has to be up, because there's no way she'd just call him at— Jason has to double check the time just to keep his train of thought, but he's lost it already.

She sounds strained when she speaks, and that makes Jason sit up a little bit taller.

"Something— Something came up and I was wondering if Bart could come stay with you guys for a few days while I try and sort things out. I know you have a lot going on, but—"

"Sure," Jason says. He doesn't need to ask. Bart is, if not direct family, at least _extended_ family. He's Thad's brother, and even if this would be the first time he stays with them, Jason knows he doesn't have to _ask._

Plus, if she's calling that late that means something's gone wrong. Either with her, or with—

"What happened to Roy?" Jason's first thought is that he's hurt. He talked to Roy only a bit over a week ago, and he knows Roy is still doing the vigilante thing, even _with_ all the focus on Ollie. That late on a Thursday night, Jason can't imagine what _else_ it would be.

But at the same time, if Roy got hurt... well, Bart was probably with him and he probably wants to stay.

"I just— I don't even know how to say it, it's— I'm so fucking _mad_ at him, Jason!"

Between Iris and Roy, Jason would absolutely say that he was closer with Roy, so the fact that Iris is willing to say that to _him_ means it's really bad.

"Just tell me what happened."

Joey's sitting upright, his eyebrows raised at Jason in the darkness as he waits for an explanation.

"I found— Jason, I literally can't even believe I'm saying this, but I found heroin in his room. They busted a big drug ring last week and I think he lifted product off them so he could use it and I— for god's sake, Jason, Bart is _right there._ I can't have him in the house when I— I need to call Bart's school, and—"

"Iris," Jason interrupts. His brain feels like it's soaked in molasses, operating at an absolutely glacial speed. "Who knows?"

"You. I knew Bart would have to be out of the house, and he doesn't even know yet. I just— god, I was putting some laundry he left in the dryer in his room and it was just _there_ —"

"Where's Bart right now?"

Jason's mentally running down a list of things that needs to get done. He feels like he does when he's out on patrol, when something really needs to _get done._ It makes it easier to not have to really think about things.

"He's out with Roy. I—"

"Go pack some clothes for Bart in a bag. When he gets back, tell him to come over, and I'll wait for him outside, alright? He knows how to find the house. We'll handle everything for Bart, and you can focus on Roy, alright? I... if Roy needs it, tell him he can call me, but right now first priority is making sure Bart's alright."

"Of course," Iris says. "Of— I need to go pack. I'll... I don't know when they'll get back from patrol but I'll send you a message to give you some warning, alright?"

"Take care of yourself, Iris," Jason says, and she hangs up.

Joey's still staring at him expectantly, even if he looks sleepy.

"Iris just found heroin in Roy's room. She's going to send Bart over to stay with us for a little bit while she confronts him."

Joey's _fuck_ is unmistakable, even in the darkness, but Jason's already dragging himself out of bed, grabbing a heavy housecoat as quickly as he can.

"Stay in bed," Jason says. "I'm going to grab your dad and let him know what's going on." Will seems like the most relevant person right then, considering Thad is _his_ son, and Joey grumbles but sinks back into the pillow as Jason heads out of their room.

The manor's kind of spooky at night, but everyone appears to be asleep right then, so he manages to reach Will's room without issue. For once, he's happy for Selina's presence: with her and Kate in the manor, there's absolutely no way in hell Will is sleeping anywhere but his own room, meaning Jason doesn't have to wake the whole house to let Will know what's going on.

Will reaches the door maybe ten seconds after Jason knocks, which means he must have shot out of bed like a goddamn rocket. Probably for good reason: it's not like there'd be a _non_ emergency reason for someone (let alone Jason) to be knocking at his door so late at night.

So Jason just says it. Straight to the point.

"Iris just found heroin in Roy's room. They're out on patrol right now but when they get back she's sending Bart over to stay with us for a few days while she confronts him and tries to get him some help."

"Oh for fucks sake," Will groans. "Is he already on his way?"

"She said she'd text when they were getting back."

"Who knows?"

"Me, you, Joey, but I told him to go back to bed."

"I'm not sticking him in the guest room. Can you go grab two sleeping bags? I need to go let Thad know what's going on. They can do a sleepover in his room."

"Should I wake up anyone else...?"

"Let 'em sleep," Will says, already on his way out the door. "We can sort it out in the morning."

Jason digs out two sleeping bags and an extra pillow and hauls them up to Thad's room, leaving them just outside. By the time Jason makes it down to the lobby, Thad and Will are already there, waiting patiently for the arrival.

"Iris just let me know there were arriving. Might be a bit longer for her to send him off, but I don't think it'll be long."

Will takes one look at Jason and shakes his head.

"I've got her number. I'll let her know when he's arrived, but you should go to bed. You look exhausted."

Jason is, so after a moment he simply nods, patting Thad on the shoulder and heading up the stairs to his room.

If nothing else, the following morning is going to be fun.


	16. Chapter 16

Jason drags himself out of bed at a more or less normal hour. Joey's already up and brushing his teeth, and he pauses when Jason comes in, scratching at his back, just to sign.

_Did I dream that Roy was doing drugs and now Bart's over?_

"He's having a sleepover with Thad," Jason says with a yawn. "Will was handling it."

 _Well, this is going to be a busy breakfast,_ Joey signs, going back to brushing his teeth.

Jason changes as fast as he can and heads downstairs. Will's already in the kitchen, cooking like mad, and to Jason's surprise only Bart and Thad are there, sitting at the table and working their way through a stack of pancakes.

"Double speedster metabolism," Will mutters as Jason and Joey arrive. "It's going to kill me."

"Hey Bart," Jason says, trying to look cheerful. Normally Bart's the happy, easily excitable one, but for once their roles are swapped. Thad looks more eager, while Bart looks more withdrawn. "Enjoying those pancakes?"

Bart nods quietly, and Joey signs to Will as he cooks.

_Did you tell anyone else yet?_

"No one's been up, and I wasn't going to wake them. They can get briefed when they show up for food, but I'm not chasing everyone down to tell them we've got another guest."

Jason texts Iris to check in and settles in to eat. As serious as the situation is, it _is_ really funny watching Bruce arrive, wish everyone good morning, and then freeze in place, his head twisting around to look at Bart where he's sitting at the table like he completely missed him the first time around.

The fact that pretty much every other person who arrives does almost the same thing makes it even funnier. Selina and Kate are the sole exception, with Kate looking at Bart with the most obviously pained expression, clearly trying to figure out how she missed another kid.

"He's new," Jason says, taking pity on her. "This is Bart, Thad's brother. He's visiting for a few days since something came up at home."

"Oh thank god," Kate murmurs. "I thought I'd forgotten a kid."

Thomas's reaction is probably the funniest of the lot of them, if only because he doesn't even bat an eye at seeing Bart there.

"That's Bart," Bruce says helpfully, handing Terry over to Thomas without even asking.

"Thad's brother," Thomas says automatically. "I'm not an idiot, they look identical."

Which is, in Jason's very humble opinion, a fair point. Thad and Bart are effectively identical in every way, the only difference being that Thad has shorter blond hair, while Bart's hair is a very poofy brown.

"Pop said I didn't have to go to school today," Thad says, and Jason swears under his breath, quickly ducking out of the room. He's halfway through calling Bart's school when he realizes that it's not even open yet, and he has to set himself a reminder to do it when the school is open later. He ducks back into the kitchen feeling embarrassed, and Will raises an eyebrow at him.

"I need to call Bart out of school. I told Iris I would."

"Have you heard from her?" Bart asks, leaning forward slightly.

"Not yet," Jason says. "But timezones, right? It's earlier there. She's probably still asleep." Which is assuming she got any sleep at all the past night. Far from a guarantee, considering what's been happening. Bart sinks back in his seat anyway, and Jason stretches his brain, trying to think of a distraction. "You guys have the whole day free, right? Why don't I take you up to the zoo. You can see Batcow again."

Damian practically flings himself out of his seat.

"I'm going! I haven't seen Batcow in ages!"

"You can go," Bruce says. "We're not going to make you stay here if the boys are going."

 _I actually need to be at work,_ Joey signs. _Lucius needs me to fill out some last minute paperwork, or else I'd go with you._

"That's fine," Jason says. "I can watch the boys. Give the adults time to socialize without a bunch of people around."

Will packs them lunch and sends them out the door. Bart seems to be a bit more like his usual self, excitement over seeing animals seeming to win out over his distress and confusion. Going to the zoo is familiar enough that Jason can basically autopilot through the day, and he lets the boys run ahead of him, simply observing as he waits for the call.

He gets it about halfway through the zoo, thankfully when the boys are distracted chasing around animals in the petting zoo.

"Jason," he answers, even though he already knows who it is. "How did it go?"

"It went okay," Iris says. She sounds tired, and Jason suspects she hasn't actually slept since they last talked. "I... I confronted him. I told him what I found. He tried to tell me he bagged it as evidence and forgot to turn it in, and I told him not to bullshit me and he broke down and admitted it. Did you know—" She pauses, taking a second to pull herself together before continuing. "Did you know he used to be an addict?"

"I didn't." It's the first Jason's heard of it, and if he's being completely honest with himself, it still hasn't sunk in. It doesn't really feel real. His _parents_ were drug addicts, and his knowledge of what being an addict really is feels deeply colored by that. He knows, for the most part, addicts in retrospect. Joey was an addict, but only long before Jason met him. Bane was, but his relationship with Bane began only once he'd gotten clean. It's hard to think of addiction as a current _in that moment actually happening_ thing.

"Apparently he was. Apparently he was a long time ago and— I mean, this was before any of us really knew him— but apparently with Barry gone and Bart and the move and— he just... he wasn't doing very well. And then the drugs were right there and... he just grabbed some. Bart was there with him and didn't even realize. Right in front of Bart!"

"Deep breath," Jason says. "Bart is fine. He doesn't seem like he has any idea what happened. I don't think Will really told him what was going on or anything."

"God, I didn't even _ask_ how he was doing. He's fine? He's alright?"

"We're at the zoo," Jason says. "Damian and Thad and him are running around a petting zoo."

"The one with the cow? Batcow?"

"That's the one. How's Roy doing?"

"I told him that I wasn't going to do this. That I wasn't going to co-parent with an addict and that he needed help. He said he'd get into a detox facility and do rehab and all that stuff and we had to call Dinah and Oliver and tell them what happened, and they're already on their way out and he... he's going to get help. So it's—" She takes a deep breath. "Sorry. I know I'm dumping a lot on you. I shouldn't be talking about this with you. You're Roy's friend first."

"And you and Roy are family," Jason points out. Even if they're not in a relationship, they're living together and co-parenting Bart, and that's family in his books. "I'm not going to leave you out of the loop. Can you tell Ollie or Dinah to let me know when I can call him?" Jason assumes he's already checked in at wherever he is, and he imagines they don't exactly take calls.

"I'll let them know."

"Do you want to talk to Bart? He's around for sure."

Iris hesitates and then finally says yes, so Jason flags down Thad, pointing to Bart. Thad zips over, tapping Bart, and then Bart zips right over to him as Jason holds the phone out.

"Iris," he says, unclear if Bart calls her mom or not.

He didn't need to worry.

"Mom!" is the first word out of Bart's mouth when he takes the phone. "You're okay, right?"

Jason gives Bart some space to talk, noting the obvious spying that Damian and Thad are doing.

"Give him space," Jason says, shooing them away. "Let him talk to his mom."

"Pop said Bart's parents needed to work something out and he'd be staying with us for a bit, and he'd tell me more later," Thad says. "Is now not later?"

"Later isn't now," Jason confirms. "If Bart wants to tell you about it, he will, but I don't want either of you bothering him about it. It's personal."

Damian makes a face, but Thad solemnly nods his confirmation as they wait for Bart to finish the conversation. It doesn't take too long—Iris apparently has to go—and then Bart zips over, holding the phone out for Jason to take.

"She says I might be here over the weekend," Bart says. He's not as solemn as he was that morning, but he's not as excited as he was when they first arrived at the zoo either. "If that's okay?"

"Don't see why it wouldn't be, but I'll let everyone back at the house know. Why don't we eat and then we can finish up the zoo?"

The rest of the trip goes relatively smoothly, but Jason still makes a point of keeping an extra close eye on Bart. He isn't the only one though, and as the day goes on, Jason's relieved to realize that Thad and Damian are _also_ keeping an extra close eye on him.

As far as trips to the zoo go, it's a pretty good one.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops. I meant to get this chapter out last week before I left, but didn't quite make it. I mentioned it over on discord, but not on tumblr, so it was a... bit all over the place.
> 
> I'm alive! I spent a week on vacation and now you can expect to see me picking up steam as normal.

They make it back to the house early that afternoon, once the boys have seen every animal at the zoo multiple times. The house is fairly quiet when they arrive, and Jason's disappointed to realize that Joey's still at work.

Bruce pulls Bart aside not long after they get back—probably to tell him he's welcome to stay as long as he'd like—so Jason spends a moment to check in with Slade, raising a pointed eyebrow but not actually needing to say anything.

"Selina and Kate are going to be leaving after dinner," Slade says without asking for any clarification. "They were only planning to stay two or three days anyway, and they've got work to do here hunting down that guy. Kate said she might stop by once the work's done and just come for dinner, but I think she wants to give us some space with Bart."

As guilty as Jason feels for effectively pushing her out with Bart, Bart is a kid and he has to be first priority for them.

The major upside of the timing is that it's Friday, which means they've got two days where Bart's absence won't be majorly noted in Central City. If his visit extends past Monday, they'll have to think about schooling, but right then all they really have to do is keep an eye on the boys and make sure Bart's comfortable. Thad's more than happy to keep him busy, and they spend the remainder of the afternoon zipping around the grounds.

Jason isn't much of a fan of Selina—she seems to be actively trying to get on Bruce's nerves in particular—but Kate is nice enough, and Jason's sad to see her go that evening. Even so, he _is_ happy for how much quieter it is when the house is a little bit emptier, and doubly so when, not too long after dinner, Iris calls Bart back temporarily to sit down with him and explain the situation.

By the following morning, everyone in the house has at least a general idea of what's going on. Some of them don't particularly care—Thomas in particular doesn't exactly have much of an opinion of Roy—while others are significantly more upset by the truth.

Jason doesn't know what to think about it. Really, he can't process it at all. It's something that's happening, but finding out one of his closest friends is an addict feels like something that's happening to someone else.

 _You're stunned,_ Joey points out as they sit together after lunch on Saturday. Jason's supposed to be reading, but he's having a hard time focusing and he's happy for the distraction.

"I'm not used to feeling _stunned,"_ Jason mumbles. "I'm... god, I don't even know what I _am."_

 _Stunned,_ Joey signs, raising an eyebrow. _You don't know how to feel about it. That's normal._

"I just—" Jason stops, trying to find the right words, and only once he has does he continue. "I don't want to say the wrong thing."

_Because you know I was like him?_

"It's different."

Joey leans over, pressing a kiss to his cheek, and then shakes his head.

_It isn't. We both were dealing with things we couldn't handle and turned to drugs. The fact that I was using something a doctor gave me a prescription for and he was using something off the streets doesn't change things. It's all the same._

Jason doesn't know what to say to that, and in the end he says nothing. Joey reaches out, trailing his fingers down the line of Jason's jaw, and Jason actually pulls back, almost purely out of instinct.

It feels like Joey's trying to placate him for... for what? He hasn't _actually_ screwed up, but it sure feels like he has.

_You're worried about your friend, but it's normal to have mixed feelings. Just try and keep an open mind. Let him talk. If he's open to it, maybe offer to let him talk to me. I know it would have helped me a lot back when I was dealing with it to have someone who knew what I had gone through._

"I'll let him know if I get to talk to him," Jason mumbles, and Joey leans down, pressing a kiss to his temple as he wraps his arms around Jason, pulling him closer.

_You should call Oliver. Check in._

"He's busy. I should... I should let him finish what he's doing."

_Talking to you is something he should be doing. At the very least, he should want to know how Bart is doing._

Convincing himself to talk to Oliver is hard. Joey convincing him to do it is easy. So a few minutes later he excuses himself, leaving Joey to his work, and goes to make a call he should have made the night before.

He makes it up in his room, sitting down on the bed, and takes a deep, calming breath before dialing.

He makes it to the fourth ring—perilously close to backing out entirely—when Oliver picks up.

"Jason?"

"That's me," he says, suddenly uncertain. "Are you busy?"

"I'm always busy," Oliver says, and Jason's already mentally preparing himself to hang up when he continues. "But I've got time for one of Roy's friends."

Jason's stomach does a little flip.

"How's he doing?"

"As bad as you'd expect. Hates that he got caught. Hates that he did it at all. Hates that more people know now. It's not exactly the sort of thing he likes people knowing about, and now there's no way people aren't going to know."

"The public?"

"It's a possibility. We picked the facility because it's used to dealing with that sort of extreme privacy concern, but the possibilities always there. I think that'd be the worst case scenario, but for him..." Oliver pauses for so long Jason isn't sure if he's done or not, and then finally finishes the thought. "I think he's more worried about you."

 _That_ catches Jason off guard.

"Me?"

"Your history is public knowledge at this point, Jay. Everyone knows what kind of people your parents were. Roy already lost Barry, and if he were going to lose you..."

"He's not losing me," Jason blurts. "I'm not— Jesus, does he really think I'm going to just... to just ditch him?"

"Some people can't be around certain things. No one would blame you if you were uncomfortable with... well, with drug use."

"I'm—" He almost says he isn't, but that isn't quite true. He is, just not as extremely as people seem to be expecting. "I've gotten used to it. It's— I'm not going to ditch him for this."

The line is silent for what seems like forever, and then Oliver clears his throat.

"How's Bart?"

"Playing the world's most extreme game of tag with Thad. They seem pretty evenly matched in the speed department, and they're showing off what they've learned to each other."

"I was going to have him come out here, but Iris was right that visiting Thad would be a lot less disruptive for him."

"More of a trip, less of being banished."

"That's the idea. Can't blame her for needing a few days to pull herself together, but I think Bart should be able to go back home on Monday."

It's a relief to hear, but it's not really what Jason's focused on right then. Realistically, Will's the one handling Bart; Jason's more focused on Roy.

"Do you... do you think I could talk to Roy sometime?"

"He's not supposed to be having non-family visitors for the first few days," Oliver says, but he sounds sympathetic as he does. "They've got him on a pretty limited list. But I'll talk to them and see if he can do a video call or something. I think it would be... I think it'd be nice for him to know you aren't angry at him or anything."

Angry. Like he could be _angry_ with Roy. Roy, who just lost his partner. Who just moved across the country to parent his partner's kid. Jason can't imagine what kind of a mess he'd be if something happened to Joey, and he doesn't want to.

"Anything I can do, just let me know."

"I'll give you a call when I hear something," Oliver says. "Probably won't be tonight. You think Bart would be alright with me and Dinah calling tonight before bed?"

"I think he'd like that. I'll let Will to know to expect the call."

The rest of the conversation passes quickly enough, because there's not much else to say. He's not really _friends_ with Ollie, and their relationship extends more or less completely through Roy.

Roy, who isn't there to take his calls right then.

Jason just hopes he will be soon.


	18. Chapter 18

When Jason's phone rings over dinner, no one else seems to think much of it. Jason, whoever, does. From the first sound of his ringtone, all he can think is _please be Roy,_ so when he checks his phone and finds a name that _isn't_ Roy, his heart sinks.

It doesn't last though, because the name on his phone is _Steve Trevor,_ and Jason can't figure out why he'd be getting a call and not Bruce.

"Excuse me," Jason says, stepping out of the kitchen to get some privacy as he answers the call. Slade (and Will) are probably fully capable of hearing the conversation if they want to, but they're also both likely to only _kind_ of listen in.

Or at least Slade is, anyway.

"This is Jason."

"Jason, good," Steve says. He sounds a bit out of breath, which isn't a good sign. "Are you busy?"

"I was just having dinner." Jason turns his head to find Thad and Bart peeking out from the doorway, staring towards him with obvious interest. He makes a quick hand gesture, shooing them away, and turns his attention back to the call.

"We have a little situation and everyone else is tied up. I was thinking you'd probably have a forward-facing first mission with the League, but Diana's still on Santa Prisca negotiating, Clark's helping with flooding down south, and Roy..."

"Is busy."

"Is busy," Steve agrees. "You're the only one who can get there in a reasonable amount of time."

"What's the situation?"

When he glances back towards the doorway, there's a whole line of eyes as people lean around the corner to gawk at him, and Jason rolls his eyes.

"You're familiar with Professor Stein...?"

"He's Tanya's mentor," Jason says automatically. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened," Steve says quickly. "He and Tanya collaborated to create an early warning system for extra-dimensional incursions. It's what detected Bart's arrival in the first place."

"It went off?"

"It went off. I was told the pattern was unusual and they're not sure what to make of it, but _something_ happened. Time travel or dimension hopping or _something._ And then, literally while they were on the phone with me, it happened again, same location, five minutes after the first one."

Jason's first impression is someone arriving and then leaving, but there's no knowing for sure. It could easily be a second wave.

"I'll go grab my suit. I assume recon only?"

"Recon only. If you need backup I can redirect Clark and his boys, but we don't want to pull him away from life saving search and rescue for what might be a false alarm."

Jason isn't even off the phone and the rest of the house is already swinging into action. Apparently having privacy for his phone call was nothing more than a pretense, because Joey's already going upstairs to grab his suit for him as Bruce heads down into the cave to grab his gear.

Within five minutes he's suited up and ready to go, with the whole family hovering nearby.

"I should be back as soon as I can," Jason says as he pulls the mask up over his face. "Sorry for running out on dinner like this."

"This is important," Slade says. "It's your first mission."

Jason can't help but feel like a kid getting sent off to his first day of class, his parents lingering nearby. He half expects Bruce to reach out and wipe a smudge off his cheek or something, so he makes sure it doesn't happen by pulling the mask down with one finger and leaning forward to give Joey a kiss goodbye.

"I'll let you guys know what's going on when I know," he promises, heading for the door right after.

He's had at least some time to practice flying, but there's no experience like _actually_ doing it, so the first ten minutes of flying is a bit rough. He's got the coordinates from Steve, and as he flies he pulls up information on the spot. To his surprise, it's not in a city: it's in Yellowstone national park, but nowhere near any of the major hiking trails. It is, as far as Jason can tell, one of the most remote points in the park.

As he flies, he does some math and decides it's probably one of the more remote places in the country. It's more than fifty miles if he was going to hike in, and by the time he starts descending down over the park he's happy for the ability to fly.

The idea of hiking in is _not_ appealing.

Thankfully, there's nothing too obvious as he approaches. There's no giant monster or gouts of flame. He's, according to Steve, arriving almost forty-five minutes after the second signal, but there's nothing about the situation that indicates that. He keeps expecting to see something as he flies closer and closer, but never does.

He makes it all the way to the exact coordinates, descending down to ground level through heavy tree cover, and finds absolutely nothing.

"...Are you sure this is right?" He asks Steve, staring at the place he's been lead. It's a forest. There's not even a clearing for him to stand in, and precious little room to maneuver. He's basically having to stand between two bushes just to not get poked by anything.

"You're in the right place," Steve assures him. "I've got ARGUS's using satellite data for the area, but the tree cover means there's nothing to see."

"There's nothing to see on the ground, either," Jason says. "Trees. Rock. More trees. Lots of bushes."

"Take a look around, see if you can find anything. If it's nothing, it's nothing, but better safe than sorry."

Jason doesn't feel the need to point out that he's a city boy. He barely knows a tree from a bush, and if Steve is expecting him to go full _wilderness tracker_ he's going to be horribly disappointed. He tries anyway, trudging around the woods near the point, and eventually loops back towards the coordinates. There's a five or so foot window of space, and he paces every inch of it, finding nothing.

Or almost nothing.

He nearly misses it, too busy looking at eye level, but when he nearly trips over a root he glances down and sees a small patch of overturned dirt. He hesitates, staring down at it, and then bends down.

There's a mark, a discreet x carved into the root to mark the right place, and Jason knows that if he had come even a day later he'd never have found the spot he's standing on. It's simply too out of the way, too impossible to find. The odds of someone stumbling onto it is absolutely astronomical, and even _with_ the coordinates he doubts he'd have found anything else.

It is, in other words, the perfect hiding spot, and that's all he can think about as he digs his gloves into the earth, digging down into the freshly turned earth.

It takes longer than he thought to find out what had been buried. It wasn't close enough to the surface that rain might have washed it away, so when he finally wrenches it free from the dirt he's just relieved he didn't have to go even deeper.

What he finds is a box maybe double the size of his clenched fist. It's completely unmarked, made of a simple enough grey, and there's no obvious mechanism to open it no matter how he tries. Wrenching it open is a possibility—the ikon suit does give him a level of super strength—but he doesn't want to break it without knowing what he's getting into.

"I found whatever it is," Jason tells Steve over the comms. "Someone buried a little box here. Very discrete. Even with the coordinates I barely found it, and there's no way someone could accidentally stumble onto it normally."

"So someone hid something here?"

"Someone from another time, or timeline, or universe," Jason agrees.

"Well, unlucky for them you're there," Steve says. "I'll send a team to investigate the area in more detail, but for the time being, bring the box back."

"Should I get Bruce to look at it?"

"That's good an idea as any," Steve says. "See if he can figure out what's inside."

The flight back feels significantly easier than the flight there. For one, there's less anticipation of a fight to come. For another, there's something for his mind to focus on. The box is a puzzle, a mystery. No matter how he inspects it as he flies, there's no obvious indication of who left it there or why.

Bruce is waiting for him when he returns (and so is everyone else, even if they're trying to be less obvious about it), and Jason hands off the box to him without an unnecessary explanation. He accompanies Bruce down to the basement, eager to find out what's inside, but very quickly comes to realize that he's not going to be getting answers anytime soon.

"This is almost painfully secure," Bruce announces almost an hour later. "If I attempt to crack it open, it's rigged to destroy the contents completely."

"Do we know what the contents are?" Will asks, folding his arms across his chest. Bart keeps zipping around excitedly, obviously used to being in the loop on any and all League matters from his time with Roy.

"A small hard drive," Era says. "I am able to inspect some of the contents of the box, but a portion is shielded with lead."

"Meaning they were prepared to deal with a Kryptonian," Damian points out. "They fully prepared for the possibility that this box would fall into League hands."

Jason has to agree. Whoever set the box up was _beyond_ over prepared, and it's with a heavy sigh that Bruce sets it aside.

"We're not getting into it tonight," he says. "I'll keep looking at it in the morning and see if I can't figure out a way to bypass the security measures in place. Worst comes to worst, whoever left it there can't get it back without going through us."

"It's possible that the shielded part is signaling, even if it doesn't look like it is, so we should keep it in a shielded room," Slade says.

Jason excuses himself, the excitement already worn off. As far as first missions go, it was a fun one, but it's also not exactly one to write home about right then.

He'd much rather spend what remains of the night with Joey.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains sexual content.

Joey's already up in their rooms, and it's there that Jason finds him. He's sprawled out on the bed, tucked under the covers as he flips through an art book, and he doesn't look up when Jason steps into the room.

"Didn't get it open," Jason says. Joey's already been down to check, but retired early when it was obvious Bruce wasn't making any progress on the box. "Bruce was going to call it a night."

 _He's a smart guy,_ Joey signs. _And I mean that both in that he'll get it open eventually, and that he's smart to give up for the night._

"I think he's going to wait until Bart's gone before he takes another stab at it. He seems pretty fond of the kid."

_He's Thad's brother, of course Bruce is fond of him._

Joey sets his book on the nightstand and glances back over his shoulder, grinning at Jason in a way that tells Jason he should be suspicious.

"What?"

_I was all prepared to celebrate your first big mission, but I have to say it wasn't nearly as exciting as I thought._

Celebrating. Jason's eyes wander down to the blanket covering Joey, and he wonders just what's happening under the covers. Is Joey... naked?

Joey doesn't need to read his mind, because Jason's sure his thoughts show on his face. Joey lets out a bark of a laugh and beckons him over, sitting up in bed.

_Sit down?_

Jason still has the ikon suit on, and that almost feels like the point as he sinks down into the bed. Even with the time he's focused on it, Joey has spent _far_ more. He knows the suit inside and out, and he makes full use of the knowledge he has when he reaches up, pulling Jason's mask farther down.

 _Let me get you out if this,_ Joey signs, primarily one-handed.

Jason nods, no longer as reluctant as he once was, and lets Joey help him out of it. He's still nervous about being naked, and it's still not _comfortable,_ but he's been around Joey enough that it no longer has the bite of fear it once did.

 _Lie back,_ Joey signs, reaching out to grab the choker from the nightstand. He might be more familiar with signing, but it's a whole lot harder for Jason to pay attention to those signs when his eyes are screwed tightly shut mid-blowjob or whatever else Joey has up his sleeve.

Jason lets himself lie back on the bed and tries very hard not to focus on how exposed he feels. Thankfully Joey doesn't make him wait, leaning up across the bed before bending down to kiss him.

Jason doesn't think he's ever going to get tired of kissing Joey. His lips, the way he moves... When they kiss it's like Joey's the only thing that exists and that's exactly what Jason wants. When Joey's there it's easy to distract himself, to slip away from the moment and his concerns and anxieties. It's the moments when Joey _isn't_ there that they press in, threatening to ruin things, and he needs to take a more active role in keeping his mind off it.

He lets his hands come up, tangling into Joey's curls, and pulls Joey's face up a bit to get a good look at him.

"Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me for something like this," Joey says, reaching up to rest his hand on Jason's cheek. "I'm happy to have some spare time to give you the attention I haven't been able to."

He winks, just to make it _impossible_ for Jason to miss what kind of attention he has in mind, and Jason feels his cheeks go red.

"Let me give you a heroes welcome?" Joey asks, and Jason hesitates for a moment (maybe a bit too long) before nodding.

He has no idea what Joey has in mind, but he suspects it's going to be overwhelming either way.

It is. It's everything he expects and so much more. Joey eases him down onto his back, fingers rubbing circles in Jason's tired body as he helps him relax. That would be enough, only Joey takes it a step farther. He takes Jason's hand, massaging it bit by bit, and leans down, pressing kisses to it.

At first he just thinks Joey's showering him liberally in kisses. There's no reason to suspect anything else. But as Joey starts working his way up Jason's arm he starts to clue in, his face going redder and redder.

Joey is kissing his scars.

Not _a_ scar, but all of them, working his way across Jason's arm as he kisses every single one.

Jason doesn't think he can go any redder, and yet somehow he does. He can't figure out what to say, or if he should say anything at all, but there's no stopping Joey as he works his way inward.

"I love you," are the first words Jason manages to say as Joey works his way up Jason's neck, kissing the few scars there. "I don't think I... I don't think I say that enough."

"You don't," Joey says. "But that's okay. I thought it would be nice to give you a new memory for every scar so that the next time you look at them, you're thinking about what we're doing here."

Joey starts working his way down Jason's side, and as touching as the whole thing is, it's also impossible for him _not_ to be turned on. He's hard as a rock, and the fact that Joey seems to be actively avoiding his cock is _killing_ him. By the time Joey starts kissing his way up the inside of Jason's leg Jason's starting to worry he's going to cum entirely untouched, and snakes a hand down only to have Joey swat it away.

 _Behave,_ Joey signs, his mouth occupied with a particularly large scar on Jason's thigh.

"I can't," Jason says, and he hates how breathy his voice sounds as he does. "You look so... so good." The sight of him. The way he moves, the way he acts... Jason doesn't know how he got so lucky. He doesn't know what he did to deserve someone like Joey.

_You can._

It turns out he can, but only barely. By the time Joey's covered every other inch of his body and trails his way down Jason's torso to kiss the little scar Jason has on his groin (he can't remember if it was from his early days as Robin or from even before that) he's fit to burst, and Joey knows it, glancing up at him with a wicked grin.

_Think you can hold on for me?_

"Absolutely not," Jason mumbles. There isn't a chance in hell of that.

Joey grins at him and, in one smooth movement, swallows Jason all the way down to the root of his cock. He doesn't have a chance in hell; Jason cums immediately, his voice stretched out into a long whine, and his entire body arches.

The moment he's done he collapses back into the bed. He doesn't think he has the energy to so much as lift his head, so he's happy when Joey slides up the bed, reaching out to drag Jason against him, pulling Jason's back against his chest.

"Going to be the little spoon tonight?" Joey asks, and Jason snorts.

"I don't think I have the energy to do anything else," Jason mumbles. "I should do something for you..."

"I'm just fine," Joey says, kissing the back of Jason's neck. "Tonight was about you."

Jason isn't content to leave it just at that though. He tries to roll and face Joey, only to have Joey hold him in place. Jason doesn't want to _actually_ fight him, so he gives in with a grumble.

"I'll get even in the morning," Jason promises, and lets himself settle into Joey's arms, happy and content.


	20. Chapter 20

When Jason wakes the following morning he finds that he's turned in the night. He's rolled to face Joey, and his face is buried against Joey's chest.

He's not in a hurry to move. He's not in a hurry to do anything but take a nice deep breath, basking in the feeling of Joey being there, still dozing, one arm draped across Jason's side.

But another part of him very much _is_ in a hurry, and he reaches down, palming his morning wood before leaning in, kissing at Joey's neck.

"Morning," he says quietly, unsure how awake Joey is or isn't. If he's totally asleep, Jason doesn't want to wake him up, but if he's right on the edge of being awake...

Well, Jason's sure he wouldn't mind being woken up for some fun.

Joey's apparently awake enough to sign _church,_ calling an immediate end to that. Jason lets out a groan, sinking down into the bed, and Joey cracks an eye open, leaning over to kiss his cheek.

_Quickie?_

Jason's never quite sure how they can manage to do _anything_ in such a short period of time, but that doesn't stop him from dipping under the covers and giving Joey a good morning blowjob.

One shower later, Jason makes it down to the kitchen just in time to catch Will starting to pass out plates. Jason intercepts one for himself, and Joey goes for the next one only to have Will pull it back.

"You're leaving, right? I made something for the road," Will says, handing the plate to Bruce as he arrives with Terry in a carrier.

To Jason's surprise, Matt doesn't arrive with Slade, but instead with Thomas, who firmly ignores the plates Will's still handing out in favor of helping Bruce get the formula ready for the kids.

"You're supposed to be going too," Bruce points out, reaching out to take Matt.

"Who?" Jason asks, confused as to who Bruce is talking to. Things get even _more_ chaotic by the arrival of Bart and Thad, who zip at lightning speed through the kitchen to stop right in front of Will, hands outstretched as they wait for their plates.

"Thomas is," Joey says, the choker already around his neck. "I think we talked about carpooling since he's got an appointment the same time I do?"

"I'm afraid that won't help after," Alfred says as he arrives. More or less everyone's there by then, crammed into the kitchen that suddenly feels much smaller than it actually is. "Unless you think you'll have time to bring him home between your appointment and your service...?"

"I can sit in the car," Thomas says. "Not going to make him drive all the way back to the house. I'm used to waiting."

"I could come pick you up?" Jason suggests, glancing between Joey and Thomas, but Thomas immediately waves him off.

"Sitting isn't a big deal."

"Then take your food and get going before you're late," Will says, handing them ziplock bags loaded with... something. Jason thinks it might be a breakfast sandwich, but Joey's got them so fast he doesn't really have time to look. Joey leans a little bit farther over, pecking Jason on the cheek, and then he's gone, Thomas trailing behind him.

Jason _hates_ Sundays.

"I'm going to spend a bit more time trying to get that box open," Bruce says, turning to face Slade. "Can you keep an eye on the kids...?"

"I've got them," Slade says.

"I'm happy to provide some assistance," Alfred says. "I've been meaning to inspect the nursery in a bit more detail. I'm afraid we were hasty putting it together and might have not checked every edge..."

As good a plan as that all sounds (and with Damian, Thad, and Bart running around on their own), it details very quickly when, just before lunch, Slade pops down into the cave.

"Left the kids with Al, and Will's making food," he says. "But Grant just called and wanted to know if we could do lunch since he was in town, so..."

"I can watch the kids," Jason volunteers. Bruce can handle the box on his own; he hasn't been doing much of anything to help anyway. He has no idea how to get it open, and most of their time has just been spent trying different scanning methods to no actual benefit. "The babies, I mean. I guess the kids are like... Damian and Thad and Bart?"

"They're all the kids," Bruce says. "I can come up and help—"

"I can manage, Bruce. How hard can babies be?"

Babies, it turns out, can be pretty hard to deal with. Terry's asleep for once, but Matt won't quiet settle down. Alfred carefully sets Matt into Jason's arms and then tasks him with walking around the manor, bouncing Matt to keep him occupied until he settles down. Every so often someone peeks around a corner to see who's going by, sees Jason loaded down with a whimpering baby, and then withdraws into whatever room they were in.

It takes him almost two hours before Matt finally falls asleep, and at that point Jason isn't willing to set him down for fear he'll wake him. When he hears Joey and Thomas coming back he stays well clear, heading up to the nursery and carefully sitting down.

When Joey finally finds him, he's reclined up in the nursery, keeping an eye on Terry in the crib with Matt sprawled out on his chest, held in place with one arm that's long ago fallen asleep.

_Long day?_

Jason doesn't dare speak, so he opts to finger spell with his one free hand. It's slow and clunky, but it's better than the alternative.

_Wouldn't sleep._

_Well, at least I have good news,_ Joey signs back, settling into one of the nursery's armchairs. _Thomas's appointment seemed to go well, and then instead of sitting outside in the car he ended up coming in. Said he hasn't stepped foot in a church in years, but he used to go regularly._

Jason doesn't even need to sign, because his surprise shows on his face.

 _I know,_ Joey signs. _I didn't expect it either. But we ended up having a whole talk about it, and it was... well, really nice, actually. I think he's going to come again next week. He's justifying it to himself by saying he doesn't want to inconvenience anyone getting him home after therapy, but it seemed a lot like he just enjoyed it._

Jason gives the idea some thought, and then signs back. _That's good._

 _I thought so too,_ Joey signs. _It'll be good for him to meet people outside the family, and church is as good a place as any. It's a nice neutral ground for him._

They stay there long after that, keeping an eye on the kids. Jason can't help but feel _slightly_ suspicious that neither Bruce, Slade (who should be back), nor Will come to check on them, with only Alfred checking in periodically, but he lets it go. He's sure they've been up late, and while he doesn't want to think about what they might be up to, he _does_ think they deserve a break.

Eventually, Bruce does come to relieve them, taking over the watch while Joey and Jason head down for dinner. It's Bart's last night with them, so Will's made extra, and overall the evening is a positive one. Damian even announces some interesting (and unexpected) news over dinner.

"Did you hear from Tanya?" He asks, turning his attention to Will, who raises an eyebrow in response. "Apparently she got a job offer. She said she'd tell me about it later, but I wasn't sure if you had heard."

"Heard she wanted to talk, but didn't get a chance to talk with her yet," Will says. "You guys would probably hear from her first."

"She didn't say anything in the group chat," Thad says in between bites. "But she told me she had something exciting to talk about soon."

Jason isn't even slightly surprised to learn there's a _group chat,_ and he's putting money on it being Titans-related. A part of him is jealous: the Titans would have been perfect for him back in the day, only nothing even close to it existed.

"I'm sure we'll hear soon," Will says. "And then everyone else will get to hear all about it."

Jason has other things on his mind though, and he turns his head to Slade, raising an eyebrow. "How'd lunch go?"

"Pretty good," Slade says. He doesn't _look_ bothered, which is the only reason Jason's even willing to ask, but it's obviously a sensitive subject anyway. "We talked. He was a little bit wary about the whole... Deathstroke thing."

"Have you guys not talked since that came out...?"

"We did, but like..." Slade gives a very vague wave of his hand. "It's different talking face to face. I don't think I really realized how bothered by everything he was, so he's just... _we're_ just taking it slow. Easing back into things."

Joey's obviously paying a great deal of attention to Slade, and Jason reaches down under the table, squeezing Joey's knee. Joey's hand drops down and rests it on top of Jason's hand, and Joey seems to relax a little bit, leaning against Jason as he does.

Jason leans over, kissing the side of his head, and listens to Slade talk all about the lunch he had with Grant, right down to the little details.

When he and Joey retire for the night, Jason makes sure to give him plenty of attention, even if Joey's too tired actually _do_ anything.


	21. Chapter 21

The next few days pass with what feels like blistering speed. Every time Jason thinks he's got a moment to rest, there's something new coming up.

Bruce keeps working on cracking open the box, but eventually gives up entirely.

"I can open it," he explains, "but not without destroying at least some of the contents."

"Even with Thad there to help?" Jason asks, and Bruce shakes his head.

They hear from Tanya at an unexpected time: Bruce and Slade are invited out to speak to the heads of the DEO and Argus about how the amnesty is being put into effect, and return looking pleased with themselves

"They've made a department for _dimensional monitoring,"_ Slade says. "Tanya isn't technically in charge, but she might as well be."

"They put Tanya in charge of a whole department?" Damian asks, scrunching up his nose, and Slade lets out a barking laugh, reaching down to ruffle Damian's hair.

"A whole department is being... very generous in your description, Slade," Bruce says. "The _whole department_ is three people."

"One of them's Hosun," Slade says. "Seems like they stuck him with Tanya because they didn't have another place to put them."

"She'll get him in line," Will says with a snort. "It's a good place for him."

Thomas goes to church again with Joey the following week, and when he returns he goes out back to the garden and gets to work on something. It takes almost three days before Jason can figure out what it is, and even then he only finds out because Alfred tells him. Thomas himself is cagey about what he's doing.

"Master Bruce was planning to have a gazebo built," Alfred explains. "Thomas thought it would be good for him to have something to do with his hands."

Construction on the basement finishes, and the construction work is limited to the guest house at last. It gives Bruce time to spend the hours needed to go through the house, integrating all the new upgrades and security into the rooms. It lets Joey broadcast to the speakers in any room as needed, but he almost never does.

Long after he was first supposed to return it, Joey finally presents Will with the paintings he's been working on. Unable to choose between his options, he's simply opted to do both. One painting has a hypothetical Grant, Joey, Rose, and Wintergreen standing around Slade, while the other has his more _current_ family: Thad, Joey, a very grumpy looking Dexter, and Jade.

Will doesn't _say_ how much it means to him, but it very clearly does. Jason's getting better and better at reading him, which is probably for the best.

They let Will's one year anniversary in their dimension go unmentioned, but Jason's sure almost everyone's aware of it. Considering how much of a mess his arrival was, Jason thinks it's better no one talks about it anyway.

Almost a full week after he was first caught, Jason hears from Roy.

It's unexpected, but not unwelcome, and Jason scrambles up to his room, the phone tucked against his shoulder as he closes the door for some privacy. Roy's voice sounds extra quiet, and Jason's been friends with him long enough to know that means he's feeling miserable.

"Hey," Jason says. "Sorry, I just wanted to be up in my room for this rather than having the whole family leaning into the room."

"Don't half of them have super hearing?"

"Era does," Jason says, because Era's got the best set in the house. "So do Will and Slade. But the house has major soundproofing, so unless they're leaning against the door, it's just us."

"No Joey?"

"No Joey. He's at work."

It feels strange having Joey be gone so much, but it's not like he's working _so much._ It's a normal enough nine-to-five, it's just that Jason isn't at all used to the idea of a full time job.

"Sorry. I should have called some other time, you're probably working—"

"I don't have a job anymore, Roy. Michael's taken over and basically runs the whole thing himself now."

"You're probably _vigilanteing,"_ Roy says. "You know what I mean. I know you're working with the League now."

"I've had one job," Jason says simply. "Clark's so fast that there's not much need for me to suit up and fly out for day to day stuff. Diana suggested I do regular patrols or something, but that feels like a step back. We were doing nightly patrols forever, and now we're better than that."

Maybe they shouldn't be talking about Justice League stuff, but Jason doesn't know how to broach any of the other stuff. Work is familiar ground. Understandable. Something they can both relate to.

But in the end he doesn't get much of a choice. If Roy wants to talk about something, Jason's going to let him.

"How's Bart?"

"Staying with his mom," Jason says. "He stayed with us a couple of days just at the start, and then he went back. From what I understand, him and Wally are handling Central City just the two of them."

"God, they're too young for that. They need an adult. Someone to actually watch over them."

 _That was you,_ Jason thinks, but he keeps his mouth shut.

"I just need to... to get out of here. I'll get out of here, get back to central city—"

"Roy."

The line is silent.

"Roy, you need to... to focus on yourself. I know you're eager to get back to Bart and Wally, but..." He takes a deep breath. Didn't the other Jason tell him about this? Didn't he try and warn him?

Well, not about this. About the fact that he was dead. And now Jason's wondering if they _are_ connected. Is the other universe's Roy dead because he didn't get help?

"You need to make sure that you're okay. They can hold tight."

"I'm fine. Really, I'm— I'm absolutely fine, Jay," Roy says, sounding more desperate by the second. "It wasn't even a week—"

"It's happened before. Roy, _please._ The last thing anyone wants is for you to get worse because you tried to... to rush to get back to normal."

"Normal is good. It's a good thing to be. You should _want_ to be normal."

"Not if it's fake, Roy. Sure, _real_ normality is nice, but you rushing home... wouldn't be that. You need to... to take care of yourself."

The silence on the other end of the line is killing him.

"Please, Roy. Promise me you'll take care of yourself."

The silence hangs in the air and Jason sits down heavily on the edge of his bed, trying not to read too much into it. Roy's going through a lot. He needs... he needs time to process. Time to handle things.

"Please."

"Alright," Roy says. "I'll... I'll stay a bit longer. Talk to people here. See if I can't make sure I don't ever have to come back."

"Thank you, Roy. I know... I know this has been hard for you, but if you need to talk—"

"You've already done enough, man," Roy says. "You were there for Bart when I couldn't be."

"Mostly that was Will," he points out. "I was just... around."

"Let's not lie to ourselves. If anything happened to me—and I mean _really_ happened to me—I know you'd be watching out for Bart. I know you'd make sure he was taken care of."

Jason doesn't know what to say to that, because it's true. He'd make sure Bart was okay. Realistically, Bart would probably come live with them.

"I need to get going," Roy says. "But this was... it was a good talk. I'll see you when I get out sometime?"

"Don't rush it."

"I know, I know! I'll see you around."

As far as phone calls go, Jason thinks it went pretty well.


	22. Chapter 22

With everything else going on, it's hard to give too much attention to Diana's work in Santa Prisca. Which isn't to say Jason's completely ignoring it, but it's not exactly at the forefront of his mind, either.

He keeps up with it on the news when he eats breakfast, but there's not much actually _in_ the news about it. People know Diana (whether she's _Diana of Themyscira_ or _Diana Prince of the Justice League_ varies depending on who's doing the reporting and their particular bent) is in Santa Prisca, negotiating with the government and 'rebel forces'. She checks in semi-regularly with the League, but Jason only hears them second hand, and it mostly boils down to _going well_ or _going slow_ or _it's like talking to a brick wall_ depending on the day.

The one time they try and use their connection to check in with Bane, all they really get is a _very busy, but things are going well._

He has other things to worry about in the end.

Jason's just waking up on the last day of May when there's a furious knocking at his door that tells him that there's going to be trouble. It's Slade there when he opens the door, wearing an alarmingly serious expression.

"Suit on," he says. "Diana might need you."

The _might_ is curious, but Jason isn't in the business of standing around waiting to find out what's going on. He's off and getting dressed at the first opportunity, hurrying into the Ikon suit while Joey groggily sits up, signing at Slade to ask what's going on.

"Haven't gotten all the details," Slade says. "Diana put out an emergency call. Developing situation, but from what we've got Santa Prisca is on fire."

"On _fire?"_ Jason says, trying not to stumble as he pulls on the suit.

 _Elaborate?_ Jason catches Joey signing out of the corner of his eye.

"Just what I said. Big forest fire on the south side of things. Diana's well away and safe, but there's only so much she can do. Right now, we're waiting for permission for the League to take action. Santa Prisca's government has been _very_ cagey about only allowing certain members of the League in on official business."

"They're _on fire,"_ Jason grumbles as he straightens up. "Are they really playing politics?"

"They're always playing politics," Slade says as they head out, Joey pulling on a housecoat to keep up with them. "Why do you think Diana's been down there so damn long?"

Everyone else is starting to arrive in the kitchen when Jason does, and Ren's there too, already in his own suit.

"You're all coming?" Jason asks, fully expecting the answer. If Clark needs backup, he tends to bring _all_ of his boys, and an entire pack of Kryptonians _would_ be helpful.

"Era can stay here," Bruce says. "I'd rather we not send _everyone_ down there, especially if you'll be down there for a while. Clark and his boys can focus on fighting back the fire, you can focus on search and rescue."

Playing to their strengths, more or less. Or lack of strengths. Jason's under no illusion he won't be as useful as someone like Clark. The Ikon suit pushes him past where a human could normally reach, but it doesn't make him a Kryptonian.

He wants to go. He wants to fly to Santa Prisca and help, but Bruce won't let them.

"Eat the food," Bruce says as Will drops a plate in front of Jason. "The moment Diana says you're allowed, you can go."

"We could fly to the border—"

"And risk trouble with Santa Prisca? We're trying to calm things down. If we want things to improve for Bane, we need the government to be willing to work with him, and pushing their boundaries isn't going to help with that."

"People are going to get hurt. People are going to die if they turn down our help. We can't just... _ignore_ people because the government says no, Bruce!"

Bruce reaches up, resting a hand on Jason's shoulder as he tries to get him to calm down.

"We're not going to ignore them. Part of being on the Justice League means being willing to play ball. Right now we're operating completely legally, and if waiting a few minutes longer, we can get clearance and help _Santa Prisca_ without stepping over that line."

Jason doesn't care about the line, but he knows how important it is to Bruce. He knows that he can't make his first (second, technically) action as a member of the Justice League one that causes an entire country to renounce the League.

Even if he wants to.

He eats.

He eats and he waits. Clark and his boys come over, and Will feeds them too as everyone else mills around in frustration, waiting for the word. When they've been waiting an hour, Jason can't stand to wait anymore, and they get ready to go.

"We'll wait in Florida," Clark says. "It'll make our flight to Santa Prisca faster, but we'll still be in the continental United States."

It's a transparent choice that will fool absolutely no one, but Jason can't stand the idea of getting the word and _then_ having to fly all the way to Santa Prisca.

The longer they wait, the more obvious the issue is. The fire is burning out of control, moving closer and closer to populated parts of the island.

"If it gets any closer, Clark—"

"I know, Jason," Clark says with a shake of his head. "We're not going to sit around and wait when something like this is happening. We just... we just need to hold on a little bit longer."

Jason doesn't want to wait. He doesn't know if he can.

But he doesn't have to. Only a few minutes later they get the call, and from there everything has to move very, very fast.

Jason signals for Clark and the boys to go on ahead. They're faster fliers, and there's absolutely no reason for them to hang back to keep pace with Jason. They zip on ahead, and Jason has to focus on flying as fast as he possibly can, which takes all his concentration.

Or almost all of it.

He's nearly to the island when someone starts trying to privately contact him on a secure line, and he opens it with more than a bit of wariness.

"Jason, I need you to listen carefully." It's Diana, and her tone leaves no room for argument. "I don't know if Clark's shown you the burn maps, but I don't believe this fire was a coincidence. We can speak more later, but what I need is for you to _not_ come."

"Wha—?" Jason blurts, even though he was trying to be quiet. Thankfully, Diana ignores his outburst.

"Clark and his boys can handle the fire with the help of Santa Prisca's firefighters. But with the way the fire is burning, it's almost definitely going to put a friend of yours in danger. Be as discrete as you can, slip in and check on them, and evacuate them as needed."

It's clear she's trying to be short, so Jason gets to the point.

"Understood," he says. "It's a shame I won't be able to make it to Santa Prisca. I'll let you know if that changes."

There's no chance anyone's _actually_ listening in, but if nothing else, Bruce has drilled into his head the importance of acting as if someone _could._

Jason drops down, flying just over the waves, and activates the most prominent—and useful—of his upgrades. He runs his fingers over the ikon suit's symbol, and between the gesture and his own thoughts, the suit activates stealth mode. The white patches shift to black, and the suits shield adjusts to reflect not just attacks, but also _light._ It's far less effective as a defensive tool, but if everything goes according to plan, he won't need the shields at all.

Diana likely has no idea where Bane's base is located, but her concern is well warranted. The fire's raging its way towards where Bane's more obvious base is, but after Jason spends a bit of time flying around, he's pretty sure that the village where Bane actually _lives_ is far enough away they're not at risk.

That isn't going to stop him from checking, though. The only reason he's even able to find it is because he's gone in (and out) by air before, which means he has a decent idea of which landmarks to aim for.

He slips into the village, happy to find it isn't abandoned, although there are a _lot_ of people moving around. It's clear the village is trying to decide if they need to evacuate or not, and it takes a bit for him to find someone he recognizes—one of the men who was with Bane when they met before.

He doesn't want to get shot, so he opts to reach up, pulling his mask off to show his face, and then swaps from stealth to shield behind a tree. Only then does he step out, alarming the man (although not nearly as much as he would have if Jason had just _appeared in front of him)._

 _"You know who I am,"_ Jason says in Spanish. _"I'm here to check on you. Bane?"_

 _"Evacuating the main base,"_ the man says immediately. _"We will be fine here, but they have supplies to move. Most of our armory is located with him, and if we lose it, the government will crush us in a night."_

Which isn't a situation Jason wants. It's not a situation _anyone_ Jason cares about wants.

 _"I'm going to need directions,"_ Jason says. _"I've never flown there before."_

The man produces a knife from his belt, bending down and using it as a pointer as he sketches out a quick map. He explains a few quick things for Jason to look for, but doesn't seem even slightly surprised by the fact that Jason can fly.

Either he's been around Bane enough he's no longer surprised by anything, or word's gotten around. Jason supposes it doesn't matter, thanking the man for the help and taking off as fast as he can. He waits until he's in the trees before he swaps to stealth, trying to keep things as discrete as possible.

It takes him longer to find Bane's base. The smoke is heavy in the air, making seeing anything difficult, and while the shield keeps the worst of it away, Jason's still careful to avoid the thick columns of smoke.

When he finds Bane, the situation isn't even _half_ as dire as he's expecting. He's expecting a harrowing last minute escape, and instead he finds Bane and his mean in a the middle of a well organized tactical retreat. They have a full on _supply train_ going, and the thick smoke from the fire means it's impossible for anyone to see them as they go.

Jason drops down, the stealth far from perfect, and isn't surprised when Bane spots him, his gun flicking up as he tries to aim at something he can't actually see.

"Just me!" Jason calls, and the tip of Bane's weapon lowers. Jason drops down, landing on the back of the pickup truck that's carrying Bane. Only then does he drop the stealth, reaching up to pull his mask down.

"A handy trick," Bane says with a nod of his head. "I had heard you had taken to the sky, not that you'd learn to do so in a way even more discrete than your father ever was."

"New trick," Jason confirms. "Are you alright?"

"Bird says the village will be fine. As bad as it looks here, we have things under control. We can fall back to our second base. This is a blow against us, but not a devastating loss."

Jason feels himself deflate. All the tension that's been building since that morning is suddenly gone. Bane is fine. His family are safe. His cause won't be destroyed by the fire.

"Is there anything I can do...?"

"I assume, by the stealth, you are not supposed to be here," Bane says. He looks amused just saying the words. "You should return home and allow Diana of Themyscira to do her work, the government having never known you were here. It will allow them to believe that the League is fully on their side, negotiating with us only to put an end to the violence."

Even if Jason feels like he should be doing more, he knows that Bane's right, and he nods once, taking a deep breath while he still can.

"Say hi to the kids for me, alright?" Jason says, and Bane smiles at him, nodding once as Jason pulls up his mask and reactivates stealth mode. He lifts up, zipping through the smoke, and turns towards Gotham.

It's going to be a long flight.


	23. Chapter 23

Jason reaches the manor _long_ before it's time to go to bed, but he's been flying literally all day and he's exhausted enough that silly things like _the current time_ don't really seem to matter. He lands on the balcony, heads right for his room, and only _barely_ manages to peel himself out of his suit before flopping into bed.

Joey comes to find him almost immediately, and Jason mumbles for him to get Bruce to let Diana know he's home before burying his face in a pillow and refusing to get up.

He does stir briefly long after dinner, emerging in a housecoat and letting Alfred (the only person still up) feed him, but then it's straight back to bed to rest.

He feels a lot less dead the following morning when he wakes latched onto Joey's side. He doesn't even remember if Joey was in bed after he ate, but he _must_ have been, and he's patiently enduring Jason's clinging when Jason finally cracks his eyes open.

"Sorry."

 _You don't have to apologize for cuddling, you know,_ Joey signs, his fingers rubbing a slow circle against Jason's shoulder. _Flying is tiring, isn't it?_

"You didn't warn me how tiring," he mumbles, and Joey snorts at that before pulling back and getting out of bed.

They shower and dress, and Jason makes it down to breakfast at a time when everyone else is actually eating for once.

"League meeting after lunch," Slade says without looking up from his food. "That means you, Jason."

Jason lets out a groan of exhaustion, but doesn't object. Part of being on the League means sitting in meetings, and he has _plenty_ of experience at doing that from his time with Wayne Outreach.

 _Then I get him for the next few hours,_ Joey signs.

Jason's expecting Joey to want to mess around, but instead they take it slow. They end up reclining out on the balcony, and Jason works his way through a book, feeling his body relax bit by bit. He needs the relaxation, obviously, and he's not looking forward to the League meeting, even if it does mean getting his answers soon.

When he joins Bruce and Slade down in the cave for the meeting, he can't help but feel like a child who accidentally sat down at the adult table at dinner. With Roy out of commission and Barry gone, he's the youngest on the League by a _mile,_ and it's never felt so obvious as when everyone else starts to video conference in for the meeting. It takes him a bit to work out that he's actually _not_ the youngest by far: Hal's only two years older than him by his reckoning, it's just a matter of how he _feels._

"Jason," Steve says as he calls the meeting to order. "It's good to see you."

"First meeting," Hal says with a smile. "Big step."

"Try not to psyche him out," Dinah says with a wave of her hand. She's the most recent member aside from him, and the only member of the team who knows what it's like to join something like the League so late.

"Everyone's here, so the hazing can begin," Arthur says with a grin, and Jason rolls his eyes in response. Beside him, Bruce huffs, but Slade finds the joke pretty funny, letting out a laugh.

"Alright, lets focus," Diana says. "We have a lot to get through and I'm not sure how much time I'm actually going to have. I'm calling this meeting to make sure everyone is on the same page with the Santa Prisca situation in light of what happened yesterday."

"The fact that you thought the fires weren't a coincidence?" Clark asks. He looks concerned, leaning forward in his seat.

"That and more. To start from the top: I've been here in Santa Prisca officially as a representative of Themyscira, but unofficially as a member of the Justice League. While the League has no official mandate for my presence here, this sort of humanitarian work is something we're known for anyway, and we have a large number of supporters. I've been doing what I can to ease tensions in the area, and hopefully improve the countries frankly alarming human rights record."

"Not to play devil's advocate," Dinah says, "but why Santa Prisca? There are a lot of countries out there doing terrible things to their own people, so focusing just on the one..."

"Santa Prisca is, as far as I know, the only country that officially advocates for children—even newborns—to be incarcerated. While I'm confident that at least _some_ groups do this, it's never an official law the way it is here, and never so widespread. The number of children who have been held accountable for their parents crimes..." Diana's expression is pained, and she shakes her head.

"But that was resolved," J'onn says. "I read about it in the newspaper some time ago."

"It's not that simple. Officially, the Santa Priscan government announced they were moving towards ending the practice. _Effectively_ they've done no such thing. They've claimed they need more time to figure out where to put everyone, since many of the children incarcerated also have their families behind bars. The only group that's actually been pardoned are those who were being held in Pena Duro."

"Which was torn down by resistance forces," Jason says. "That was ages ago."

"Exactly," Diana confirms. "If you'll give me one moment..."

He screen swaps over to a map of the island, and she starts to explain as quickly as she can.

"The concept behind the law is simple enough: those that implemented it feared that if you executed a man for treason, his family would take up his cause. By taking his child to prison, you then have an effective hostage against the rest of them, and you ensure that the child themselves can not take up his cause and seek revenge. Despite what you may think, the law is actually fairly recent—it was implemented less than a hundred years ago, and can mostly be linked to the current administration, even if that was two presidents ago. Officially, Santa Prisca is a democracy with multiple political parties and elections. In actuality, there's a single political party with strong military support that's effectively a military junta. The current president has been in power for forty years, and shows no signs of leaving his position anytime soon."

Most of the information Jason knows, but it's clear to him that not everyone does. Dinah and Arthur both seem to be paying close attention, and Clark's nodding along as he listens.

"Santa Prisca's political situation was a careful balance between the military-backed government and the drug cartels which previously dominated the island. With the effective destruction of the cartels, the government no longer had any checks on their power and has become increasingly aggressive towards anything that might threaten their power. There have been harsh crackdowns against anyone supporting rival political parties, and elections have largely been shams. Resistance-backed politicians have technically been voted into power in some areas where the government has limited control, but it's become increasingly obvious that they have no actual say in anything."

"I know that some of us have people in the line of fire here who we support, but I am... still wary of sticking our nose into another country's politics like this," Clark says. He glances apologetically towards the screen, and Jason's sure Clark is looking at him. "It's never as easy as it sounds."

"In this case, my presence here is technically at the request of the Santa Priscan government. Santa Prisca is a tourist hotspot, and a significant portion of it's economy is based on incoming foreigners. When the cartels were in power, the general agreement was that they would keep their actions quiet and leave the tourists out of it in exchange for the government looking the other way. When the resistance forces removed the cartels, they did so in a way that drew a great deal of international attention. Suddenly, the government could no longer ignore what was happening. Now, they're attempting to clean up their reputation as fast as possible, and they've invited me here in an attempt to do just that. Officially, the two sides are negotiating to find peaceful terms that would put an end to the fighting."

"Somehow I doubt it's playing out like that," Slade says dryly.

"No. While the resistance forces effectively haven't taken any action since my arrival and the start of negotiations, the government has increased the amount of _unrelated_ crack downs and arrested a lot of people for the flimsiest of reasons. They're taking advantage of the ceasefire to try and root out resistance supporters, but they're not having much luck."

"The fire?" Jason prompts, and Diana nods.

"Considering where it was set, there's a strong likelihood that the military lit the fire in an attempt to burn the resistance out of their primary base. I'm not sure how successful they were, but that was the plan."

"They weren't. Resistance forces fell back, but had no loss of life of property," Jason confirms, and Diana lets out a sigh of relief.

"This does beg the question of what the next step is. If the government isn't negotiating with good faith, what's even to be done?" Arthur asks. "Unless you're suggesting Themyscira or Atlantis go to war with them or something of the sort."

"Legally, our hands are tied," Diana says. "But it's something we need to keep an eye on in case they become... untied. Right now, it's important for us all to appear in support of the peace talks, and for us to _not_ show any bias towards any one side."

Which is a very prolonged way for Diana to say _Jason, don't go hanging out with Bane._

"I got it," Jason says. "I'll stay here, well away from trouble."

"I know we've been wanting to get Jason into the public eye a few times before we officially announce him," Arthur says. "Why not have him help up north? He could handle it and leave Clark free."

"Up north?" Jason asks, feeling out of the loop.

"There's a small volcano that's erupting in Alaska," Clark explains. "No one is in any serious danger, but there's a scientific outpost that's going to need evacuating if we don't want them eating shoe leather, since the volcano's cut them off from their usual supply line. I was going to go up and fly them to the nearest city, but there's no reason you couldn't do it."

"Just a flight?" Jason asks, raising an eyebrow. "The volcano isn't going to pop on me and get way worse?"

"This volcano... _leaks_ fairly regularly," Clark says. "You're perfectly safe. It's not even a rush—I'd recommend you leave tomorrow morning so that the city nearby has people ready for when you _do_ arrive."

"I'll arrange it," Steve says. "That alright with you, Jason?"

"Fine with me," Jason says with a wave of his hand. "I'll fly in, pick them up, and fly out. Easy as pie."

Or that's the theory, anyway.


	24. Chapter 24

Jason's _more_ than ready to go the following morning. He's showered, dressed, and suited up before six thirty, and Will is forced to corral him back into the kitchen to get some food in him before he'll let him go.

"Just because I'm not your dad doesn't mean I'm going to let you leave the house with an empty stomach," Will growls at him. "Just because Slade and Bruce are with the kids doesn't mean you can sneak out like that."

Once fed, Jason is sent upstairs to say goodbye before he's allowed to leave, and it's closer to eight by the time he finally sets off towards Alaska.

J'onn is handling mission control, coordinating from League Headquarters, and there's something soothing about having J'onn's voice in his ear giving instructions. J'onn knows just where to go and what he's supposed to be doing, so it's an easy enough flight. The outpost is remote, nowhere near any sort of civilization, and it's damn near impossible to miss when there's a volcano leaking ash into the sky. Thankfully, Jason's flying with the wind, and the ash isn't headed towards any town. It is, in many ways, the absolute best case scenario for him.

Someone's standing out on the outpost's deck with binoculars as he drops down, and Jason gives what he hopes is a cheery wave as he moves to land just beside them. They're an older woman, her curly hair pulled back in a tight bun, and she's bundled up against the wind as she looks him over.

"You're not Superman. You're... Jericho?"

Jason reaches up, pulling down his mask and regretting it immediately. The wind is vicious and absolutely _freezing._

"Jericho's someone else, although I'm using his suit. I'm Tern," he clarifies. "I got called in to handle the evac?"

"Jason Todd," the woman says, looking him over with a clearly scrutinizing demeanor, and he decides not to say anything. "You can lift us in that little suit?"

"Haven't tested the weight limit completely, but I can lift more than five hundred pounds without issue, so I'm pretty sure I'll be fine."

"Well, you're going to be testing it. We've got a crate of equipment we loaded up expecting Superman, and that's probably around a ton."

Oh. Well, no time like the present he supposes.

"I can give it a try. Worst case scenario you might have to split it into two or three loads for me."

He's lead inside where the woman does introductions. She turns out to be in charge of the facility, and there's seven people he's going to need to evacuate. All of them are already bundled up, and most of them have bags or backpacks.

"No idea when we'll going to be able to come back, so we've got to take everything important with us," she explains.

"The internet got cut!" One of the younger scientists complains. "We can't transmit _anything,_ which means we need to haul a bunch of hard drives along with us."

"Well, I should be able to just carry you. If you've never been carried before—and I'm going to just go ahead and assume you haven't—it's not exactly the most comfortable thing in the world."

There's a round of groans.

"Why don't I take one or two of you to the drop off point, and then I'll do a few trips with everyone's bags? It's a whole lot more comfortable just having one person," Jason says, and then briefly turns away, tapping his comms. "J'onn, we're not on a time limit or anything, are we?"

"You are free to take your time," J'onn says. "There has been no change to the situation. The base you're standing in is not in danger, but has no access to the outside world except by air."

"Got it."

He flies the first person out ten minutes later, his arms under their armpits in a dangle. It's not at all comfortable, and he ends up _insisting_ the second let him fly them bridal style. After he's moved half the group he focuses on moving the stuff, and for some reason every time he comes back to the base they've loaded up a new crate for him to move.

He keeps waiting for the volcano to blow. He keeps waiting for things to go horrifically wrong.

But it doesn't. He finishes moving the last crate and works on evacuating the last few people remaining. The woman in charge—who insists he call her Mary—is of course the last to go, and seems to get some actual joy out of being flown bridal style to the nearest town and the evacuation point.

Jason carefully sets her down, radioing to J'onn that they're all evaced, but doesn't get to leave before he's effectively swarmed.

They want pictures. It's... weird, and he has no idea what to do with it, but he understands the _concept,_ at least. To the average person, members of the League must feel impossibly far from the average human. Half of the team isn't even human, and those on the League who are...

Well, Jason doesn't think any of them are particularly _relatable_ anymore.

So he lets them take their pictures in the desperate hope that it makes the League seem less far off and inhuman, and then finally excuses himself to go home. It's late afternoon by the time he gets back, exhausted from flying all day and happy to be home.

He arrives expecting to have missed much, but realistically speaking there's nothing _too_ miss. Almost everyone's been either at work or handling their own stuff. Joey's only just gotten home when he lands, and they don't get a chance to catch up until they're in the midst of dinner.

"It sounds like it went well," Bruce says, looking like a proud parent of a kid who just won first place in a sports tournament. "Are you going to be doing more missions for the League then?"

"If I can. Hard to be in the right place at the right time."

 _How's the suit holding up?_ Joey signs, and Jason grins.

"Holding up just fine. Turns out it can lift a full ton with effort."

"Mine only does seven-fifty," Will says with a scowl. "This is what happens when you get stuck with the prototype."

_Should have thought that one through before you rejected the ikon suit._

Joey and Will start not-quite-arguing with each other about their suits, and Jason grins as he watches them go back and forth.

He's spared from babysitting that evening by virtue of having been out all day, and instead spends the evening reading in bed. When Joey joins him, he pulls on his choker, orders Jason to roll over, and then sits on his back and gives him a massage while telling him all about work.

Jason really doesn't mean to drift off, but he absolutely does, listening to Joey talk about referrals and funding.

It is, to say the least, a good day.


	25. Chapter 25

The following morning, Jason allows himself to be just a little bit self destructive and checks online for reactions. There's a number of photos of him floating around as Tern, either flying with someone in his arms or landing at the drop off point in Alaska. There's a great deal of speculation about why he has the suit, and most of it is accurate enough: Joey gave it to him, either out of concern or because he needed it more. A few even correctly speculate that the choice of _Tern_ is to distance himself from who he was before, and Jason allows himself to get complacent and check the comments.

It isn't good. In a dozen comments, the majority are positive, but it's impossible to ignore those who are effectively calling for his head. Some are hostile towards the League as a whole, but most are hostile just towards him (and Slade specifically). He can only read two comments about how his continued presence in their lives is a _gross miscarriage of justice_ before he has to close out the tab, mentally berating himself in Hudson's voice.

Joey finds him still sitting at the computer almost an hour later, and knows him well enough to pull him away from the computer, showering him with affection and reassurances that Jason desperately needs to hear.

There's a pit in his stomach the rest of the morning, and everyone seems to be aware of it, even if they don't know the why. Thad brings him Jade to play with under the pretense of Jason catsitting her, and Bruce insists on spending a good chunk of the day visiting and showering him with praise.

He feels better—or at least less shitty—by that afternoon, which works out to really matter, because Steve ends up calling to check in.

"Things went really well," he says, blissfully ignorant to how Jason's been feeling. "Ideally, we can find a few more things for you to do sometime soon."

"This sounds like you're making up work for me to do," Jason grumbles, because the way Steve's phrasing it is _really_ rubbing him the wrong way.

"Well it's not. The point is more distribution of work. It's easy to just let Clark do basically everything since he's so fast, especially with— well, with us not having a Speedster active with the League right now. But then Clark ends up burning out, and everyone else is rusty and out of practice. I know Gotham's not as, ah, _crime ridden_ as it was back in the day, but if you could patrol around there, it'd be helpful."

"What's the actual plan?" Jason asks, struggling to figure out where Steve's going with it.

"Diana's hoping to be able to come up and introduce you. Press conference to announce you're a proper member of the League now and have a seat on it and all that. She's not sure she'll be able to leave Santa Prisca, but she's at least trying."

"It's a tricky situation there," Jason agrees. He understands why she might not be able to come, even if it would be a bit underwhelming to not have Diana there. "I guess you want me to be a bit more visible before I get announced?"

"That's the idea."

"I'll see what I can do."

He does. Maybe he shouldn't go out that night, but it feels better to be doing something then sitting at home. 

He leaves just after nightfall, taking to the sky from his balcony after giving Joey a quick kiss goodbye. The mask's been fitted with communicators, and it's easy for him to listen in to the police chatter as he settles in on a good vantage point.

For the first hour, there's almost nothing. The reports that come in are issues, but issues for the police. He doesn't want to make things worse or cause trouble by swooping in to an already finished robbery investigation or an irritating noise complaint.

So he waits. He waits and lets himself remember that Gotham is so much better than it was. It's safer. The people are happier. And the police are a thousand times more competent then they ever were when he was running around as Robin, let alone when he was just a kid. They're well funded, well supplied, and have actual standards. He's heard Bruce brag about them regularly, and the fact that Gotham's gone from the last place any cop wanted to work to the first is impossible to forget as he listens to the radio.

It's almost nine when there's the first sign of trouble that he could actually help with. There's a runaway car heading down the freeway through Gotham, driving erratically and potentially putting people in danger. Jason takes off from the roof, angling towards the reports, and listens in for more details.

Routine traffic stop, one person in the car, took off when the police tried to pull them over for expired registration.

From the air, there's no question about which car it is he's looking for. They're weaving in and out of traffic, taking advantage of the openings as other cars pull to the side as they hear the police sirens behind. It's a dangerous situation, and when Jason sees the runaway car clip another car, very nearly causing them to spin out, he moves.

But it's not the old days where they acted and left the police to clean up the mess. Even if the laws haven't quite caught up, the fact is that they _are_ supposed to be working with authorities, so he doesn't head straight for the car. Instead he drops down, matching pace with one of the police cruisers near the back, and then knocks on the driver's side window.

The driver's seen him coming, and rolls it down carefully. Jason's sure he's hard to hear with the wind, so he keeps it brief.

"I'm going to grab the car," he says quickly. "Can you radio everyone else and have them get off at the next exit?"

The officer nods and grabs his radio, and Jason zips ahead, soaring just above the line of cop cars as he heads towards the runaway vehicle ahead.

He isn't afraid of what they can do to him. Even if they have a gun in the car, the ikon suit will keep him safe. He's far more concerned about what they can do to _others,_ which is why timing things correctly is so important. He needs to make _absolutely_ sure that the car isn't going to swerve and hit anyone.

He matches pace with the runaway vehicle (a harder task then it should be, considering all the weaving and changing of speed), and then waits until he can just see the next off ramp.

Then he reaches down, pressing his fingers in right at the top of the driver and passenger side window, and lifts.

He has no idea what the upper weight limit of his suit is. He has no idea what he can lift. But the car lifts with only a bit of strain, the front tires lifting off the pavement as Jason heaves it up. The awkward angle is the most difficult part about the whole thing, but he makes do, his arms straining as he starts to tow the car towards the off ramp.

The car's only got two wheel drive, and with the front tires off the pavement the driver has no actual options available to him.

Except one, apparently. There's a _bang_ and Jason's shield flashes as it deflects something—probably a small caliber bullet—back into the car.

"You're just going to shoot yourself doing that," Jason says as loudly as he can manage as he hauls the car off the off ramp and directly into the next problem.

The ramp isn't clear. There's three or four cars waiting at the stoplight and nowhere for them to go. Jason's options are very suddenly _stop the car_ or _attempt to lift the car over the other cars,_ and he doesn't like either option in the slightest. The driver has a gun, and just because _he's_ safe from bullets doesn't mean the other people in the car are.

There's another bang, and for a second Jason thinks the driver's caught on to the same thing. Jason pulls his body forward to look through the windshield in a desperate attempt to draw fire (his head's already protected, and he knows that for _sure)_ when he realizes that the driver's twisted around almost a hundred and eighty degrees and is firing behind him.

Towards the trunk.

Jason acts as fast as he can think. He drops the front of the car, all but _launching_ the driver as he bounces in his seat, and punches his way through the front windshield, going for the gun. Between being dropped and the car's momentum slamming to a halt, the fight is easy and brutal.

Jason is a lot less invested in the driver once the gun is out of the way. He's standing on the hood of the car with the gun, and all he can really hear are sirens as the fleet of cars pull up behind him.

He abandons the driver. Even if he tries to run, one of the cops will chase him down. Jason's focus is solely on the trunk as he flips himself over the top of the car, landing just behind the trunk.

He digs his fingers into the latch, popping it manually the way Slade always used to long ago, and is not surprised when the trunk opens to reveal a bound and gagged woman. She's probably a few years younger than him, and she looks absolutely terrified as the trunk pops open.

This is what he's practiced. This is what he has years of experience in. He's learned from the best of the best, and he reaches up, pulling his mask free to show his face. A face to humanize him. Reassuring words to let them know the danger's over.

"It's alright," he says. "You're safe. The police have the guy who took you, okay?"

He takes off the gag first. Every bit of logic tells him to do the woman's wrists first so she can remove the gag herself, but it's been drilled into him over and over again that people feel more limited when they're gagged, so that goes first.

Reminding her that she's safe. Checking her health is next.

"Did you get hit?" He asks, and she nods, swallowing down the terror and fear as Jason naps the ropes on her wrists. They look like they were grabbed out of someone's shed, which means they probably were. "Where?"

He doesn't really need to ask. He can see the blood staining the side of her top even before her hand moves to hover over it.

"I'm going to lift your top a bit and apply some pressure, alright?" He says, waiting for a nod even if the seconds are burning away. She cries out at the pressure, clearly in pain, but she's obviously losing a _lot_ of blood, and while Jason knows first aid, he's not a medic.

"Oh Jesus," are the first words out of the mouth of the cop who's circled around to check in on Jason. "Is she—"

"She was shot in the side. I need a— do you have an EMT?"

"EMTs are on their way, but they aren't here."

Jason makes a snap decision, turning his attention back to the woman still in the trunk. He doesn't want to move her and risk further injury if she's been hit in the spine (in the back of his mind he can hear Barbara lecturing them all on spinal injuries and he knows better than to just lift her out). That means he need to treat her right there and make absolutely sure she isn't going to bleed out before the paramedics can get there.

"Hey," he says, his voice dropping in a desperate attempt to calm her fears. "This is probably going to hurt, but just for a bit, and it'll stop the bleeding, okay? So I just need you to be brave for... for just a second."

He reaches out, taking her hand in his, and is reassured when she gives it a squeeze.

Good. She's not too far gone.

His free hand dips into one of the pouches at his waist, pulling out a small syringe. The gel hasn't made it to the market yet, but Bruce had long ago fished it out of R&D for situations exactly like this.

He finds the bullet wound easily, still gushing blood, and pushes the whole syringe inside in one go. The woman cries out, and Jason does what he can to reassure her, well aware that it's going to hurt like hell. Then he presses the stopper, pushing the gel out as he slowly withdraws the syringe.

The gel is a sticky, clumpy mess, but it's effectively making one giant blood clot to keep her from bleeding out any more. It isn't painful once it's set up, but the first few seconds are obviously excruciating, and once he's done injecting Jason redoubles his efforts to comfort her as they wait for the paramedics to arrive.

By the time they do, Jason's a mess. His hands are soaked with blood and bits of gel, but the bleeding's almost completely stopped. He stays with her all the way to the ambulance, and only lets go when the doors are closing.

"You did great, kid," one of the officers says, slapping him on the shoulder. "How the hell did you know he had someone in the trunk?"

"Figured it out when he tried shooting backwards. Getting rid of the witness, I guess," he mumbles. The adrenaline's all gone, and he's sure it'll be a wobbly flight back to the manor.

"You look ready to drop," another officer says. "I know you can just fly, but do you want a ride back?"

Jason almost says no, but he's so _tired_ that it seems like a very good idea right then.

"Sure," he says. "That was... very tiring."

"I mean, you just lifted a _car!_ I'd hope that's tiring."

He lets himself bask in the positive attention as he climbs into the cruiser, half asleep for the entire ride home.

He did good, he reminds himself. He helped someone.

In the end, it makes everything else worth it.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter contains sexual content.

To Jason's disappointment, Diana can't come to the announcement in the end.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes at the meeting. "Things are... very delicate here. I'm worried if I leave, I'm not going to be allowed to come back, and I feel like we're so close to a breakthrough."

But Diana's absence is made up for but the surprise appearance of Roy. Jason doesn't even get any warning. He's just backstage, waiting for everyone to be ready and the press conference to start when someone jabs him in the side and he spins to find Roy standing there.

He looks like shit, if Jason's being completely honest with himself. He looks like he's lost too much weight, and his eyes are sunken.

But he is smiling, and Jason doesn't hesitate to pull him into a hug before standing back and looking him over.

"I didn't know you were going to be here!"

"I didn't know I was going to be either. The public knows I'm missing, but they don't really know _why,_ and Dinah thought if I missed this people would start really looking into it."

Which is the last thing they want. The longer they can go without someone realizing that Roy is in rehab, the better. If he can make it all the way to coming back to his job without it? That would be ideal.

"How have you been?" Jason asks, fighting the urge to look Roy over again. He doesn't want Roy to feel _inspected,_ even if that's exactly what Jason is doing.

"Decent. Better than I was, for sure. I've— I mean, I know you did therapy and it worked for you but I kind of avoided it, and now they've got me in grief counselling, and just... is it normal to feel fucking _exhausted_ when you're done?"

"Oh yeah," Jason says without a speck of hesitation. "First few months of therapy and I felt like dying every single time I finished a session. Took years before I started feeling normal after... Hudson says that if you don't feel emotionally exhausted after, you're either done needing therapy or your therapist isn't working."

"Well that's good to know," Roy says, sounding less than enthusiastic. "So you're finally joining the League for real? Someone said you've got Joey's suit now."

"He gave it to me when he retired. He's working over at Wayne Enterprises now, so he doesn't have time to go flying around."

"Who does these days?" Roy says, elbowing him in the side and cracking a smile at his attempt at a joke.

"Roy!" Bruce calls, and Jason turns to find him and Slade just arriving, both dressed in suits. "Glad to see you could make it."

"Good to see you guys too," Roy says. "Won't be able to stick around once this is over, but... well, at least it's nice to be here and see Jay get christened as a proper member of the League."

Jason can't stop himself from blushing, mumbling to himself about how he's been a League member for _ages._

Roy simply ignores him, choosing instead to chat with Slade about things.

"You look great," Bruce says, reaching out to squeeze Jason's shoulders. Unlike everyone else who are in suits, he's dressed in the ikon suit, giving people the first proper look at it. "I don't think I'll ever be able to tell you how proud of you I am. You've become an absolutely amazing person."

"Dad," Jason hisses. "I'm about to go _on stage."_ His face feels like he's on fire, and he hastily pulls up his mask in an attempt to hide his blush.

"Oh, are we tormenting Jason?" Slade asks, leaning around Bruce to grin in Jason's direction.

"No!" Jason blurts. "Aren't you supposed to be on stage?"

"They haven't called us yet," Roy says, joining right in on Slade's grin. "Means we still have plenty of time—"

"League members!" Steve calls from up by the stage. "Could I get everyone but Jason up here?"

Even if he's supposed to be going, that doesn't stop Slade from looping an arm around Jason's shoulders and pulling him in close, planting a kiss on the top of his head before finally releasing him.

"Knock 'em dead, kid."

As much as Bruce and Slade have talked it up, the actual announcement is nothing special. Steve announces that he's joining the Justice League, Jason steps onto the stage, and then he's introduced. There's no speech or surprise, just a standard enough _here he is, take a good look, I'm sure you'll see him around._

Jason can't help but feel a little bit let down, but he distracts himself by visiting with Roy afterwards.

Despite Roy's plan to go _straight back home,_ Bart and Thad are having _way_ too much fun, and it's easy to convince Dinah to come to the house for dinner and give them a bit more time together. It's nice to see Roy, and fun to see Thad and Bart zipping around the house without so much as stopping for air.

Late that evening, Joey and Roy excuse themselves somewhere private to talk, and Jason lets them go. A part of him can't help but feel a little bit bothered by the fact that they're talking in private, but the fact is that they now have a shared experience that he'll never (with any luck) understand. When they return, Joey seems more serious than he normally does, and when Roy and the others have left for the night and the two of them are heading to bed, Jason can't stop himself from asking.

"What did you talk about?"

Joey winces immediately.

_Sorry babe, but it's private. I told Joey I'd keep it to myself. It was... just addiction stuff. How he was doing. Things like that._

Joey leans over, kissing the side of Jason's head, and Jason does what he can not to huff.

"I'm just happy he has someone he can talk to about it," he says, not entirely truthfully.

 _I pointed him to some resources,_ Joey adds. _I looked them up when I first heard about him. Wanted to make sure I knew where to point him._

Jason leans over, kissing Joey on the lips, and Joey goes down easily, falling back into the bed as his hands come up to cradle Jason's face.

 _I love you,_ Joey mouths, and Jason grins, kissing him again and again. _Want to show me just how much you love me?_

Jason knows _exactly_ what that means, and he doesn't hesitate to shower Joey's face with kisses before dipping lower, trailing them down his neck. If Joey wants that kind of attention, he's going to get it, and Jason is all too happy to assist. He pulls Joey's shirt up over his head, leaning down to continue trailing kisses down Joey's chest.

Joey might be mute, but he's far from quiet, and every little gasp he makes is enough to drive Jason nuts. He feels himself getting more and more riled up, and he's practically racing to get all of Joey's clothes off, stripping him down before going to work on his own.

Or trying. He's reaching for his shirt when Joey reaches up, catching Jason's wrist to stop him and get his attention before signing.

_Leave it on._

It's not like they've talked about this specific thing, but Jason can get the idea, at least. Having Joey completely naked and him fully clothed is something he can understand the appeal of in very general terms, even if it doesn't really scratch _his_ itch. He nods, leaving his shirt intact, and opts instead to simply undo his own pants just to relieve some of the pressure before turning his attention to Joey.

Joey is gorgeous. Seeing him naked and sprawled out on the bed, waiting for him... it's an image he'll never, ever get tired of. He doesn't hesitate to dig in, letting his hands wander down Joey's body, finding his cock already hard and waiting.

"Riled up?" Jason teases, and Joey huffs at him for just a moment before Jason distracts him by bending down, sucking the head of Joey's cock into his mouth and dragging his tongue along the underside just to start them off.

Jason's had a lot of practice giving blowjobs, but the point right then _isn't_ to get Joey off, so he's careful about it. He wants to get Joey riled up (easy enough), but not actually let him cum (not so much). With his mouth busy, he lets his free hand grope around the nightstand until he finds the bottle of lube, pulling it out and popping the cap without even looking. They've messed around enough it's easy to autopilot through things, popping the cap and drizzling some lube onto his fingers. He bobs down and drags his fingers across Joey's hole, wishing just for a second that he could pull back and see, but it passes quickly as he starts to work a well lubed finger inside.

The noises Joey is making are driving Jason absolutely wild, and he doesn't have the self control required to stop himself from reaching down, palming himself through his underwear and grinding against his hand.

A part of him wants to just keep going. He could absolutely finish Joey off with just his mouth, never-mind his mouth _and_ his fingers, but he knows Joey would just feel frustrated afterwords for not having Jason finish. So he forces himself to let go, releasing Joey's cock with a wet _pop,_ and then works on adding more fingers, biting at his lip as he forces himself to stop rubbing at himself.

He's so goddamn hard.

Joey reaches down, tapping on his own leg twice, and Jason knows that means _I'm ready, hurry up,_ or maybe _stop dragging this out._ It's a simple enough code: one tap means to stop, something's wrong. Two means _more_ or _yes._ Three means _less_ or _no._ It covers the basics and lets Joey communicate even without the choker, even if Jason's eyes are elsewhere.

"Got it," Jason says with a grin. "Impatient, are we?"

Joey gives him an unimpressed look as Jason reaches down, _finally_ pulling his cock out and starting to apply some lube. Truth be told, he's desperate to press into Joey, but he knows enough to be slow and methodical about it, making absolutely sure Joey's ready before he finally lines himself up, the head of his cock nudging against Joey's hole.

"Ready?"

 _Yes,_ Joey taps, and then rocks against Jason to make absolutely sure Jason knows he's serious. He needn't have bothered, because Jason's so turned on he's only barely holding back as is, and the _yes_ is all he needs to start pushing in. The heat, the pressure... Jason groans almost immediately, needing to pause before redoubling his efforts. He loves every part of it. He loves the feeling of it, but he also loves the noises Joey is making and the way he's moving under him. Every little rock of his hips, every little gasp drives Jason wild, and as much as he hopes to hold out a bit longer, he knows he's not going to last. He picks up speed, rocking into Joey's body as Joey's entire body arches up to meet him.

Jason drops his hand down, trailing down Joey's chest before wrapping around his cock, and he starts to jerk him off in time with his thrusts, helping Joey towards his own orgasm.

He was never going to last very long, and when he cums it's with a groan, his entire body doubling over as he buries himself in Joey. Even with his eyes closed he still gets to enjoy things, feeling Joey's hands dancing across his shoulders and head before finally resting right on top, fingers gently running through his hair.

It's only once they're finished that Jason lets himself _really_ talk again, too used to being quiet to let himself hear Joey's noises.

"Did you— you finished?" He can't even remember. The whole thing is one great big pleasurable blur, but he's pretty sure...

Two taps, and when he glances up Joey's grinning at him, unwilling to actually take his hands away and stop playing with Jason's hair.

Jason mumbles a bit to himself, resting heavily against Joey's body for a second before finally rolling off him and detangling their limbs.

"I love you, but I _really_ need a shower."

The sound of Joey's wheezing laughter is unmistakable to Jason, and brings a smile to his face no matter what the circumstance. 


	27. Chapter 27

There's a rhythm to things at the house. It's new, but it's still _there,_ and once they've settled into it, it works out. Sundays are church and therapy. Monday to Friday, Joey goes to work and is gone almost all day. There's always something going on on during the week, whether it be someone coming to visit, or something coming up.

Jason spends his night listening to the radio, ready to go at a moment's notice. Inevitably, it's a better use of his time then sitting on a roof bored out of his mind, and there's something nice about being able to spend his nights with Joey, watching him work on things for Wayne Enterprises as Jason listens in.

Mid-June, Damian goes for his final prosthetic fitting, and comes back without an eye-patch. It's disorienting, because the prosthetic is so lifelike that if Jason hadn't explicitly been told he'd have believed, without question, that Damian had his eye back. The prosthetic moves like a normal eye, controlled by the same muscles it normally would, and Damian blinks and reacts as if it's real.

"But you can't see out of it?" Jason has to ask to confirm, and apparently the prosthetic has enough range of motion to eye roll in Jason's direction.

"No," Damian says. "Slade told me he would teach me some tricks to help me aim, though, so it won't be an issue much longer."

With his eye intact, Damian's interest in heroics grows. As quick as he was to announce his retirement, it's clear to Jason that it was at least partially based on Damian assuming he wouldn't have an actual chance any longer. Jason supposes it doesn't really matter anyway: Damian has plenty of time to decide which path he wants to go down. If he wants to take a more business oriented path like Joey, he can. If he wants to rejoin the Titans and be a hero, that's an option to.

Or, if he wants to run off and become a veterinarian, he absolutely can do that.

As much as Jason enjoyed his time at Wayne Outreach and what he built, he's happier spending his nights out as Tern. Every person he helps feels like a weight lifted off his chest, and every evening he returns home feeling like he's made a difference.

He even hears from the woman he rescued from the trunk that she's doing well, and that she's thankful to him for having saved her.

It makes what he does worth it, even if it means playing politics. He's never enjoyed playing nice with politicians and bureaucrats, but that's exactly what he has to do. The whole family makes a brief appearance in DC to show their support for some early drafts of what they're calling the _superhero act,_ but of course it stalls out, going nowhere fast as politicians argue over every single detail.

But overall?

Overall things are going well.

Which is why when everything crashes down it feels so much worse.

He wakes long past the middle of the night to the house's alarm blaring at him. He's out of bed and running for the ikon suit before he's even half awake, his mind trying to process whats happening while _also_ putting on pants.

It says a lot about the situation that Bruce doesn't knock at his door. Instead, he simply slams through it like a one man wrecking ball, radio clutched in his hand.

Bane's radio.

"He sounded the emergency alarm a few minutes ago," he says. "He said— he just said they were under attack, and to send you."

Jason is out the door and onto the balcony in a flash. He doesn't need more explanation. Bane wouldn't call them at three (four?) in the morning for no reason. Bane has a good sense of danger and what they can and can't do, and if he's sounding the emergency alarm—the one for _absolute emergencies only_ —then the situation must be dire.

Jason's never flown so fast before. He flies so fast he can feel the suit starting to tremble as it threatens to shake apart, like a car driving far, far too fast for it to hold out. He's planning to head straight for the village to find out what's happening, but as he approaches Santa Prisca he realizes that it's no longer necessary.

He knows what's happening: the mountain where Bane's village is on fire, patches of flame and smoke leaping up into the air. The idea of another fire so soon strains any possible chance the Santa Priscan government has of credibility, but Jason doesn't have time to think about that right then as he dives down, angling for Bane's house.

It isn't on fire just yet, but ones a little ways down already are. Jason's heart is in his throat as he heads for the door, but he doesn't quite make it there before he's interrupted.

"Jason!" Bane yells, and Jason swings around to find him near the back of the village. He has a baby in each arm, and Maria has Paloma held in hers. They look panicked, and Jason can't blame them for that in the slightest. They—

There's a noise. Jason has no idea what the noise _is,_ but an instinctual part of himself knows that it's dangerous. He barely has time to hunker down when a part of the mountain north of them simply _explodes,_ showering them—and the entire village—with dirt and bits of wood.

It takes Jason an embarrassingly long time to process what's happening, even if, in actuality, it's only seconds at most.

"You're— they're _shelling_ you?"

Somewhere out there, the Santa Priscan military has artillery aimed at the village. They know just where to aim and they aren't hesitating to use it, and the realization of it has Jason's head spinning.

The whole village is going to be destroyed. It's going to be wiped off the map so thoroughly it'll be like it was never there at all.

"Jason," Bane says. His voice sounds like he's begging, and Jason realizes that he is, the massive man dropping down to one knee to be eye level with him. No, not to be eye level. Bane's reaching out, handing Jason the babies. "Take them. Paloma too, if you can. Get them somewhere safe."

Everything is going too fast.

"No," Jason says desperately. "I'm not just leaving the two of you here—" Not to be blown to pieces. Not to watch everything they've made be destroyed. He's not taking away three orphans and leaving their parents to die.

"You have to do this," Bane says, tone firm. "If I only have one request, it's this. Take them, keep them safe—"

The babies are crying. Paloma herself is crying. Maria is putting on a brave face, but it's just that: a face. She thinks she's going to die.

"No!" He blurts. "I'm going to— I can fix this."

"You can't fix this, Jason," Bane says. "Fixing this means angering the Santa Priscan government. It would be suicide for the League to intervene here. You have no ground to do so."

"They let us come in for the fire—"

"Because they _allowed_ you in. To save lives. Them wiping us off the map isn't the same thing."

One massive hand rests on his shoulder, but he doesn't get to hear what Bane is going to say. Another shell (round? Jason has no idea, and those small details suddenly seem to huge) hits south of them, obliterating a patch of forest.

"I'm going to fix this," he says, shaking Bane's hand off. "I can fix this."

Bane's face falls. He's convinced, without question, that it cannot be fixed. That Jason is leaving the children to die.

"I'm going to fix this," Jason is still saying as he pulls away. He isn't, he tells himself. He's not leaving them to die.

He can still make it better.


	28. Chapter 28

Jason reminds himself that he is there for a reason. He isn't Tern because he was adopted into the family and they needed a place for him—he's Tern because he _wants_ to be. He's Tern because he can help.

He's ever bit as competent as Bruce ever was. He just needs to show it.

He just needs to think. He just needs to find something, _anything_ that he can use against them. But time is so short.

He calls Diana first, a half-baked plan already forming in his mind. He hails her on the highest urgency, and gets her on the third beep, obviously half asleep.

"Jason...?"

"They've launched an artillery strike on Bane. The mountain's on fire."

Jason swears he can _hear_ Diana sit up straight.

"They _what_ —"

"I'm going to call Clark and his boys, we're going to need them—"

"Jason! Jason, think this through. We _can't."_

"We _can!"_ Jason protests. "There are children there. People are going to die. People are probably already dying."

Is it possible for him to defend the area alone? They aren't shelling that often, but he has no idea how the suit will hold up to an artillery barrage. Explosions, from how he understands the ikon suit, might not be something he's protected from.

"It's political suicide, Jason."

He just needs to... to think. He needs to figure it out. It's a puzzle, just one where failure means people die.

"We're supposed to help people, Diana!"

"It's not that easy. It's never that easy. Right and wrong aren't black and white issues. There's... there's nuance and shades of grey—"

"Attacking _literal children_ isn't a shade of grey, Diana!"

"I know it isn't," Diana says. She sounds distraught. She's upset, and Jason thinks that might be the only way to get her to see reason. "But this is politics. If we intervene, this could be the end of the Justice League."

Does he get them to say he's gone rogue? It's an option. Saying he's gone rogue would shield the League from the consequences of his decisions, and the idea of sitting back and letting it happen... he won't let that happen. He's not even going to consider it.

The thought isn't a good one. It isn't a healthy one.

But it's the one he needs. The one that gives him the best possible plan.

"Diana," he says suddenly, snapping upright. In the distance, he can hear another round of artillery hit the mountain. They don't have much time. "Please, _please,_ I need you right now. I need you to go to the president. Say it's an emergency. And then tell him what's happening."

"Jason, he knows what's happening," Diana says, sounding more weary by the second. "He ordered it."

"Record it. Record the whole thing discretely. He ordered it, and we both know it, but Diana... is he willing to own up to attacking children? They're not attacking Bane's military base, they're attacking his _village._ They're attacking children and the elderly and people who can't fight. Just... just emphasize that."

"Why?" Diana says. She sounds like she's already moving. Jason has to trust she's already moving. "What— there's a plan, right?"

The plan is simple but desperate. It hinges on the exact thing he hates so much: politics.

"The plan is that he'll say he didn't. I can't imagine he'd own up to... to attacking them like that. He'll play innocent and say he has no idea what you're talking about."

"That doesn't change anything, Jason!"

"It does!" He yells. He needs it to change something. He needs it to work. "If the president didn't sanction it and really he's trying to play along like he claims, then the Santa Priscan military has gone rogue. They'd be classed as staging a coup against the democratically elected government of Santa Prisca. And that's something that our agreement covers. It's in there, Diana!"

She knows. She knows because she wrote it. The same agreement that lets the League come in to help with natural disasters _also_ helps with evacuating or intervening in the event there's a coup or an invading army, at League discretion of course.

"That—" Diana takes a deep breath. She's definitely running—if Jason listens carefully, he can hear her footsteps as she flies through the hallway at top speed. "That might work."

Through the comm link, Jason can hear it as it happens. He can hear Diana burst through a door.

"Mr. President!" She says. "Someone's attacking Santa Prisca!"

"What!" A man who must be the president yells in the background. "Who?!"

Listening in, Jason knows that Diana missed her calling as an actress. She sells it, her demeanor picture perfect. Even just her voice is perfectly convincing, acting the part of the confused, mislead Justice League member who thinks, without hesitation, that Santa Prisca's president would never, _ever_ attack his own people.

"I don't know!" She says. "Someone's attacking the central mountains. They've got artillery—there are innocent people up there!"

She's really, _really_ selling the panicky innocent thing, as if she's not a battle-hardened general who could punch a tank to pieces. Jason's sure she's wringing her hands while she's at it, letting the president comfort her in her time of need.

"I swear to you, I will find out who committed this horrible crime," the president swears. "I'll have their heads for this."

"But the villages—"

"I'll go call my generals right now," he insists. "They'll move out. Maybe we'll be able to stop the fire and save those who remain."

In other words, he's going to take his own sweet time. He'll _mobilize_ in the morning. Maybe, if he's feeling particularly involved, kill off a few of his own men for _leading the attack._

But it doesn't matter. He's already signed his own warrant.

"Thanks Di," Jason says in her ear, flipping the communicators to broadcast to the rest of the League.

He waits a few seconds for the signal to go out—he's pretty sure he can hear people picking up, but it's lost in another explosion far behind him—before he addresses the situation.

"I just spoke with Diana. I'm currently on Santa Prisca, and the village where Bane lives is being shelled."

"Jason—" Bruce starts, and Jason already knows what he's going to say, so he simply interrupts.

"I've already spoken with Diana about this. The Santa Priscan president denies any knowledge of the attack. He did not authorize an attack on Bane's faction. That means we're fully covered under the agreement he signed when we came to help with the fires. If he orders us out, we have to go, but by that point we should have been able to stop the attack." And ordering them out would be a disaster for the president.

"I'm on my way," Clark says. "The boys will be coming after me."

"I'm going down now," Jason says. There's not time to wait for Clark, even if he'd probably demand more respect. He's going to stop the artillery _now,_ by himself. There's no time for anything else.

Jason descends down the mountain towards where the shots are coming from. He doesn't bother with stealth, keeping the ikon shield tuned to protect him as much as possible. He's probably going to be fired on, but he can absolutely handle that. It wouldn't be the first time, and it's not going to be the last.

He drops out of the sky towards the military encampment. They've set up near the base of the mountain, and they've got a whole range of military hardware that Jason couldn't even name set up. It's the most obvious example he's ever seen of the fact that he's batting out of his league, but there's no option but to go with it as the soldiers start to realize he's there, looking up at him and whispering among themselves.

For a brief moment, it goes quiet. Jason hangs in the air above them, staring down at them like an angry god as he tries to push down his fury.

It shouldn't be targeted at them. They didn't chose this.

 _"Santa Prisca's president says this attack is not authorized,"_ Jason says in Spanish. He wishes his Spanish were better so that he could manage some actual nuance, but it isn't, which means he needs to keep it simple.

 _"We are here under his orders!"_ A man yells. He's got badges and medals pinned to his chest, but Jason doesn't know enough to recognize the different ranks of the Santa Priscan military. He's important though. Probably.

 _"I have it on his authority that you are not authorized,"_ Jason calls. _"Stand down while we sort this out."_

_"I'm not going to listen to some foreigner!"_

The gauntlet is thrown.

 _"Stand down, or I'll make you stand down."_ Jason says. _"Your president has abandoned you. If you act further, he will kill you and claim this was your idea. You will take the blame for him."_

The leader is undeterred, but those around him seem uncertain. They exchange alarmed glances, and Jason hopes, even if it's just a few, that he can convince some to stand down. He doesn't want to hurt them. If he can get the whole damn army to lay down their weapons and stop firing...

"You should listen to what he says," a voice says, and Jason looks up to find Clark dropping down out of the sky, his cape billowing in the wind. Jason's sure most of them understand what Clark's saying, but he's also sure that even those who don't get the picture just from how intimidating Clark can be.

As much as the guy is a teddy bear in his day to day life, Clark can look absolutely terrifying when he wants to.

 _"Get back to work!"_ One of the generals yells. _"They'll escape while you're listening_ —"

He splutters as Clark zips down, grabbing the back of his shirt and hauling him off the ground.

"This campaign is over," Clark says. "Weapons on the ground."

Jason knows how to sweeten the deal. He _knows,_ in that moment, how to get them to agree.

 _"This is Superman,"_ Jason calls. _"You all know his reputation. The president is planning to blame you for this attack so that he will be in no trouble himself. But Superman will protect you. You all know who it was who told you to come here and attack."_

One of the men steps forward. His gun's still held however loosely in his hands as he stares up at the two of them.

_"You will guarantee our safety, then? The generals and the president will have our heads if we do not finish what we came here to do."_

Clark winces, turning to Jason for a translation.

"They're afraid the president will kill them for not doing the job," he explains.

"Tell them I'll do everything in my power to keep them safe. This should never have had to happen."

Jason doesn't need to translate. There's a murmur through the soldiers, but only a few seconds later the first one pulls his rifle off it's sling, dropping it to the ground.

Others follow suit, disarming without a single shot fired.

Jason just hopes it's enough.


	29. Chapter 29

Even if the barrage has stopped, the danger is far from over, and Clark isn't going to let him forget.

"Jason," he says. "I'll stay here, but you—"

"You go help," Jason says. Bane and his family might be his friends, but Jason won't let that get in the way of simple logic. "Your powers are going to be a lot more useful fighting fires then mine are." There's limits on what he can do in the suit, as useful as it is. He can evacuate people, but he can't actually drive the fire back the way Clark can. He can't _fight_ the fires, and with so many people who need to evacuate the village at once, Clark will be more useful.

Clark doesn't fight him on it. He turns and takes off, heading back up the mountain to help the evacuation as Jason turns back to the soldiers.

None of them seems like they have any idea of what to do. They're simply milling about, talking among themselves.

Jason drops down, landing on the ground, and reaches up to pull his mask down. It's a plain-as-day attempt to make him seem more human, but he hopes it works anyway as he joins about, milling them. The crowd seems happy to see Clark and skeptical of everything else, and Jason tries not to hold it against him. They're uncertain, questioning their choices, and afraid.

"Hey!" One of the soldiers says, calling out to Jason as he weaves his way through them. Jason stops, turning to look at them, and is taken aback by how young he looks. Eighteen, maybe? Barely an adult and a far cry from what Jason thinks of when he thinks _soldier._ "How do we tell people that we did not want this? I do not want Bane coming after my family."

Jason doesn't think Bane would do that, but if his family _is_ hurt, Jason's significantly less certain.

The soldier's English is far clearer than Jason's Spanish, so he sticks to Spanish, relieved to be able to communicate clearly for once.

"This is politics," he says. "You're here late at night because the president knows he's losing to Bane and his people, and if he launches a strike against him the public will turn on Santa Prisca. So instead he sends you out here to kill Bane and the people who support him, and when the sun rises he'll say that you acted on your own and kill anyone who says otherwise, branding you traitors."

What he's saying is the truth, and they all know it. It's the only explanation that makes sense for what's happened: for launching and attack long before dawn, and Jason suspects they can all think of a dozen other examples that indicate just why they're there.

When Jason speaks, he makes sure he's loud enough for those around him to hear.

"He has control of Santa Prisca because he controls the military. But when people say that he controls the military, they mean the generals. Who you back doesn't matter to them. Your say doesn't matter."

There's dissent in the crowd. They know what Jason's saying is true, and that makes it easy to figure out what will help. To know just what to say to bring them along with him.

"I don't want anyone getting killed," he says. "I don't want anyone getting hurt. But I understand I've put you in an awful position where you had to choose between fighting Superman or obeying orders. When the Justice League spoke to the president, he said this entire attack was unknown to him and that he'd never heard of it."

 _"Bullshit!"_ Someone yells, and Jason can't tell if they're calling bullshit on him or the situation. It doesn't really matter. Just from the tone of the crowd it's plain as day to him that they're furious with the president for disavowing them.

"It is bullshit!" Jason agrees enthusiastically, feeling the crowd's reaction like a surfer on a wave. "So tell them the truth. Tell the public what happened here. Tell them you don't want to fight."

Jason suddenly has dozens of people willing to give statements, and he films each one as patiently as he can manage. Some speak in English, while others speak in Spanish. Two speak in a language Jason's familiar enough to recognize as the same native tongue that Maria speaks, even if he can't understand a word.

He does everything he can to remain patient as he films them all, promising to get the word out. Promising they'll make a difference. But keeping his focus takes a considerable amount of effort because all he really wants to do is run back up the mountain and make sure everyone's okay.

"Jason," Clark calls down to him just as Jason's finishing up. "You're wanted up the mountain."

Jason knows what that means, and he's happy Clark didn't say _Bane wants you._ It's a relief. It means they weren't wiped out. Clark looks distressed, his face smudged with soot and his entire body seeming to sag.

"Can you stay here?" Jason asks, glancing around. "I told them they'd be safe from the president and his men."

"I'll do what I can," Clark says. "You should go."

Jason feels like being sick as he takes to the air, heading up towards the village. All he can think about is who might be hurt up there. If anything happened to Bane's children after he refused to take them...

It's a relief when he reaches the village and finds Maria and the children. Bane isn't there right away, so Jason carefully checks over Maria and the kids, making sure they're alright. Most of the fires are out, but there's one on the hill that's still burning, and Jason can see Clark's boys zipping around as they work to get it put out.

Maria is smudged with soot, but appears unharmed, and all of the kids seem fine, if upset. Paloma is sniffling, obviously having run out of tears, and both babies are wailing in their mothers arms.

"Bane?"

"With the men, taking stock of the damage. Many of the houses are destroyed."

A quick glance around the village tells Jason that no one's going to be getting much sleep for a long while. Almost half the homes are so badly damaged to be unlivable, and many of the others have issues of their own, whether holes in the ceiling or a thick smell of smoke. The village is nearly unlivable, and Jason is struggling to imagine how they're going to keep going.

"Jason!" Bane calls, striding across the village towards them. He's as smudged with smoke and ash as his wife, but a part of his shirt has burned away, a violently colored burn running across his shoulder.

"You're hurt—"

"I have had much worse," Bane insists, which is both a fair point _and_ entirely beside the point. Even so, Bane has no intention of discussing his injury, and he seems to move without any obvious sign of pain. "We're lucky. We only lost a few people in the attack... it could have been much worse without your help."

He still should have been faster, but Jason bites his tongue, knowing Bane wouldn't tolerate any argument like that.

"But you know what I have to ask," Bane says, face going solemn.

Jason does.

He knows that they haven't won. Not really. They've struck a blow and won a victory, but he isn't naive enough to believe that it's over. The president isn't just going to surrender because they've caught him in a lie.

Bane is public enemy number one. The president is willing to obliterate an entire village just to get to him, and Jason doesn't think for even a moment that he'd be above hurting Bane's family.

"This will be a civil war," Bane says. "I won't be able to focus on it if my family is constantly at risk. I don't know how many you can take—"

"I can take all of them," Jason says, mentally running through the logistics of it. "The suit can handle it."

Bane's hand on his shoulder makes him feel very small. He feels like he hasn't done enough, but the smile Bane gives him is thankful anyway.

"Sometimes doing the right thing isn't about saving people. Sometimes it's about giving people a chance to save themselves."

He squeezes Jason's shoulder, and Jason makes himself take a nice deep breath.

"I'll keep your family safe," Jason says. He's not sure how. It's not like bringing in an entire family isn't something that normally has _rules_ and _regulations,_ but it's not like they can afford to wait. He can't leave them there and have them file the forms, which means he's going to have to play it by ear.

"Thank you," Bane says quietly. "I'm sure they won't be trouble."

"I'm sure they won't either," Jason says with a smile. "Take care of yourself, alright? I'm going to be really upset if you get hurt more than you already are."

"I'll do my best to take care," Bane says, and then turns away to say goodbye to his family.

Jason tries not to listen in, turning his attention to his comms as he calls ahead.

"I'm going to be taking Bane's family out of the country. He's going to... to sort things out here on his own."

"Do you need any help moving them...?" Clark asks.

"I can handle them all. Shouldn't be hard."

"Do you have a place to take them?" Diana asks. "A destination...?"

"Honestly, I was going to fly them into Gotham airport and have them claim asylum. Seemed like the best idea."

"They'd have to argue about the danger they're in, and it wouldn't be quick or easy. If I can make a suggestion, while it would be out of your way, if you could stop by Themyscira, we would happily shelter them there."

Themyscira. It would definitely be the safest option, and the least politically risky, but it's a decision Maria will have to make for herself.

"I'll ask her about it and let you know."

The goodbyes are finishing, so Jason gets to the point.

"Diana's offered to give you sanctuary on Themyscira, if you'd want it. Or I could fly you into Gotham airport and have you claim asylum there."

Maria glances to Bane, and there's a quick discussion in her native tongue before she turns back to him.

"Which would be easier?"

There's not even any real question.

"Themyscira," he says. "They already know what's happening on Santa Prisca, and you'd have more options there."

"Then Themyscira is fine," she says.

Jason nods, and then goes down on one knee, gesturing to Paloma. She hides behind her father, who turns, bending down to speak to her.

 _"Paloma,"_ he says quietly. _"You remember Jason? The man who brought you the bear? He's going to take you and your siblings somewhere safe."_

_"And mom and you?"_

_"Just your mother for now. I will come get you later."_

That launches a small argument with a lot of wailing, but Bane isn't having it. He picks Paloma up, looking to Jason with raised eyebrows.

"On my back," he says. "I was going to carry Maria in my arms while she carries the twins, and Paloma can ride on my back." It's the best position he can come up with, both in terms of comfort and safety. Flying like he does, his back will be a flat surface. With her arms around his neck and shoulders, she should be safe and secure for the flight.

Bane doesn't wait for Paloma to stop being upset, simply setting her behind Jason and giving her a stern look.

 _"People are hurt,"_ he reminds her. _"Every second I stay here fixing this is a second I'm not helping them."_

For a moment no one says anything, and then Jason feels her arms wrap around his neck and shoulders. She weighs almost nothing, and it's easy to lift her as he stands. When Maria has the babies safely bundled against her front it's just as easy to scoop her up, and he nods to Bane as he gets ready to go.

"Be safe," he says. "I'll make sure they get to Themyscira."

He takes off, and as distressed as Paloma is she seems delighted by the whole thing as they take off. As long as the flight's going to be, Jason makes sure to take it slow, flying the long way around to avoid the last of the smoke, Maria in his arms.

When he levels out, it's an easy enough flight, and he has a lot to think about on the way.


	30. Chapter 30

The flight is uneventful, and if Jason is being honest with himself, pretty boring. Maybe an hour in Paloma nods off, and Jason has to carefully shift his weight to keep her balanced on his back. Thankfully she's not the kind of person who rolls in her sleep, and the only time it really matters is when he starts coming in for a landing, when he has to wake her up and get her to hold on as he aims to land. The sun's starting to rise, which makes landing a pain.

There's a dock set up on the side of Themyscira, and even if Jason's only been to the island once, it's an obvious target. He chooses right: there's a small group of Amazons sitting idle waiting for them who all leap to their feet when Jason comes in for a landing.

There's a lot of politics and welcomes, but none of that matters as much as the fact that Jason is effectively courtmartialed the moment he lands by a tall, red haired amazon who has absolutely _zero_ respect for the fact that he's a member of the Justice League.

"You look a moment from dropping," she says. "We already have quarters prepared. You can sleep there, eat, and then leaveafter you've rested if you insist. We'll let your family know you're staying."

He does not get a say in the matter. Really, he doesn't have the energy to even fight her on it. He's been flying for hours, and he doesn't even shower before falling into bed, dead to the world.

He eats with Maria and the kids after he wakes, trying not to look _too_ amused. The amazons are an island without children, and suddenly having _three_ has lead to an extremely high amount of doting. Even if she obviously misses her father, Paloma is excited by the attention, and the Amazons are just as excited to meet her as well.

Jason is _allowed_ to leave once he's eaten, and the flight from Themyscira to Gotham doesn't take nearly as long as the flight there. It's a clear, sunny day, and Jason's eager to get back and find out what's going on.

The news when he gets back is positive, and Bruce is all too happy to fill him in.

"Clark pointed Bane towards the soldiers," he explains, settling back in his chair. "It was a smart choice. Being willing to look past what they'd just done made him look like a good leader, and it got him a major foot in the door with the military. The countries tipping fast towards an all out civil war, but Bane having supporters who were involved in the military means it might not be as bloody as we feared."

"Clark? Diana?"

"About an hour ago they confronted the president with the videos you uploaded to the League's servers. He originally claimed they were faked, tripped over his own claims, and then demanded they get out. So, officially, the League has withdrawn from Santa Prisca and is no longer welcome there. But they're in a much better position than they were before. How was Bane?"

"He burnt his shoulder and didn't even seem to notice. I evacuated his family to Themyscira, but I'm sure you already knew that."

Bruce smiles at him, which means _yes, I absolutely knew that,_ and then pats Jason on the shoulder.

"Might be time for more sleep. Maybe another shower."

"I wanted to see the kids."

"I'm going to just assume you mean Terry and Matt. They're up in the nursery if you want to bother them. And Bane's twins...?"

"They were asleep when I left. They've got a whole island of Amazons who haven't seen a baby in decades to dote on them now, so they'll be just fine."

Before he was tired, physically exhausted from hours of flying in an awkward position. Now he's tired in a completely different way as everything else that happened crashes down on him.

"They almost died," he says quietly. "Bane asked me to take them when I arrived, and I said no and went to help, but... but if I'd been _wrong,_ if they'd died—"

"They didn't," Bruce says, his hands resting on Jason's shoulders. "Every time we go out we have to make choices. If we choose wrong, people could be hurt... or worse. But we have to live with those choices, no matter how they turn out."

Bruce pulls Jason against him, and Jason makes himself take a deep breath. He's okay. Everything turned out fine. He saved them. But he still feels so damned _tired._

He goes to see the babies anyway. With Matt in one arm and Terry in the other he feels a surge of relief like nothing else, and he very nearly nods off in the nursery before Will intervenes, stealing the babies away and sending Jason off to bed.

He wakes hours later to Joey joining him in bed, showering him with kisses and attention to make up for waking him up.

_I hear you saved a lot of lives._

"Not that many," Jason mumbles, and Joey chuckles and kisses him again.

_Bruce would beg to differ. So would the rest of the League._

"I don't think they count."

_I would beg to differ too._

Which ties Jason's hands, because he can't exactly say _Joey's_ opinion doesn't matter, so he settles for grumbling a bit as Joey pulls Jason into his arms, letting him rest heavily against him.

 _You're my hero,_ Joey signs, and Jason's face burns red as he tries to go back to sleep.


	31. Chapter 31

Jason has never in his life paid so much attention to the news, but right then he absolutely is. He _needs_ to know what's happening in Santa Prisca, even if he's no longer (as things stand, anyway) welcome there. He knows that it shouldn't matter, but how things go there feel like they change how well he did.

If Bane wins and the corrupt government falls, it feels like _he_ won.

Which is why it's crushing that the initial reporting is negative.

Julio Cardozo, the politician Jason knows French and the other former militia commanders are supposed to be guarding is killed not two days after the attack on Bane's village. Others follow: anyone even _mildly_ associated with Bane winds up dead or nearly so. It's clear the president and those supporting him are instigating a purge, and the information available to Jason is limited at best, largely in Spanish and neutral in tone, if not outright supporting the president and his choices the way the national newspaper does.

There are thirty thousand soldiers at the presidents fingers, and Bane's entire force can't even be a thousand people. For all Jason knows, he's already dead, his attempt at a rebellion grounded before it could even take off.

Which is why it comes as an _immense_ surprise a week later when Bane releases a video. There are actually two, one in Spanish and one in English, but the content is the same. As Jason watches the video with Bruce and Slade it dawns on him that Bane has learned from them going public: he isn't going to let _anyone_ use his past against him.

He starts by owning up to who he is and the things he's done. He explains his story, and why he returned to Santa Prisca.

And then he explains the state of things. That part of the video is clearly intended for a foreign audience, because it's a lot of explanations of things that anyone who was on the island would already know. He tells the world about laws that put children in prison, about the corruption and the attacks. It's all things Jason knows, but seeing Bane be so persuasive does impress him. He's using his identity as a weapon against the president and his men: if even _Bane_ thinks change is needed, then what must the average person think?

He calls on the world to put pressure on the current government, and the people of Santa Prisca to fight back. Bruce uses his resources to make absolutely sure the video spreads, and the League, lead by Diana, join the call for governments to put pressure on Santa Prisca.

Tourism slams to a halt almost overnight, and Santa Prisca devolves into a civil war.

Jason can't stand sitting on the sidelines. He can't stand sitting around and waiting, knowing that people he cares about are in danger. But his hands are tied: he can't do anything to help Santa Prisca. He can't go fight anyone, and the League has already backed Bane's forces as much as they can.

He settles for visiting Themyscira and checking in on Maria and the kids. He promised Bane he'd take care of them, and he plans to make good on that promise.

Bane makes contact with them in late July, but it isn't Bane who does the talking. French is waiting for them when they manage to establish a secure connection, and Jason does what he can not to look disappointed.

"The boss is busy, but he said he wanted someone to update you guys now that we have an actual headquarters."

"We were concerned by the lack of contact," Bruce admits. "We assumed the transmitter was destroyed."

"We've just been on the move," French says. Base one was destroyed in the fire, the village was torched and had to be abandoned in the attack, and we ended up with a lot more people then we expected."

"More people?" Jason asks, leaning forward. "You mean the soldiers?"

"Them and more. The president tried to purge another small village, so we had to evac them. That was what took us so long to get the video out—too busy trying to make sure things were stable."

"I'm surprised you even managed to get out," Slade admits. "I assumed he'd move more military in to ring you in."

French grins, tapping his temple. "Bane's no slouch. We did get ringed in, but somehow, everyone in the unit that crossed paths with us suddenly became blind as we passed through. Not sure what he said to them, but he's done that a lot. Lots of times you have a unit go out to hunt us, take fire, and return down a man or two. Sometimes it's actually us defending ourselves... but a lot of the time it's the pro-Bane soldiers turning on the pro-government soldiers in their unit and making a pact to support him. As large as the military is, they're almost completely ineffective by now, because none of the leadership can figure out who they should trust."

The situation is better than they thought. Even though Bane doesn't have the numbers, he has the support of the average man, frustrated and afraid in their homes. The presidents threats no longer hold the power they once did, and with zero foreigners coming into the country, his power is rapidly dwindling.

People are suffering, but Jason has hopes it won't be for long.

"Bane said I could handle the call because I waned to let you know about Doyle."

Jason leans forward immediately, panic rising in his chest. He hasn't even really _spoken_ to Doyle—not for a long, long time—but he's worried anyway.

"Died with the politician he was guarding, didn't he?" Slade guesses, and French nods.

Jason feels his heart sink.

"Died doing what he loved. After he died, Bane gave us a way to leave the country if we wanted, but the rest of us chose to stay. Going to stay at least until the war's over. Doyle wouldn't have it any other way."

Later that afternoon, Jason goes to visit the graves out back. Thomas is sitting in his gazebo, reading, but lets Jason visit them without comment. There's no grave for Doyle there, and Jason wonders just where he was buried. Did they leave a marker? Or was secrecy more important.

Maybe his name will be on a memorial years from then, recognizing what he did to help Santa Prisca. That he died helping.

"Please tell me you're not blaming yourself for what happened to Doyle," Slade says from behind him. Jason didn't even hear him coming, but he doesn't need to look to know who it is. Will and Slade sound ever so slightly different, and Jason would know Slade's voice anywhere.

"I'm not," Jason says with a huff. "Doyle was a mercenary. He worked a job that put him at risk of getting shot every day of his life. I know that him getting killed isn't on me, but I'm still allowed to feel bad he's gone, right?" He turns then, scowling at Slade as Slade steps up, resting a hand on Jason's shoulder.

"You are," he agrees. "He was a good guy."

Jason only nods. There's nothing else to say. Maybe he shouldn't be as bothered by it as he is, but he's known Doyle longer than he's known a lot of the people in his life right then, and knowing he's gone feels painful in a way Jason isn't used to.

"You've got a big heart, Jason," Slade says. Jason expects something to come after, some platitude or reminder not to take it too far, but Slade is silent beside him, staring down at the little graveyard of those they've lost. "...You want to make a little marker for him? Just to remember him by. That he lived and that he died."

Jason does want to do that, and by the time night falls, there's another marker in the graveyard, mourning another person who they've lost.

It makes Jason feel better, knowing that it's there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you felt like this was short... it kind of is! I ended up splitting FTGF into two halves because I wanted to swap the point of view. This is the first half. The second half is coming up next and should be up later tonight, or tomorrow morning at the latest.
> 
> As always, thanks to everyone who's reading, kudosing, commenting, and chatting over on the discord server!


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